Parasites
by Neuropsych
Summary: Something is making everyone sick... can Beckett figure it out before things go from bad to much worse?
1. 01

_**Parasites**_

**(The Mitchell Files XI)**

_Author's Note/ Disclaimer: I haven't pulled Mitchell out for a while, so I thought I would since I'm finished with the latest campers story. I only claim the characters I created, although I'm borrowing the other ones, too. I'm not making any money or anything off this story._

_That said; here we go!_

OOOOOOOOOO

Ronon Dex looked over at Lieutenant Colonel Melony Mitchell and frowned.

"You're _kidding_…"

She smiled and shook her head.

"Touch it."

"No way."

"Do it."

"No. It'll bite my hand off…"

"No, it won't." She looked over at her other companion. "Jinto?"

The boy hesitated, looking at the incredibly large creature they were standing in front of and then back to Mitchell. Trust won out over nervousness and he reached out and touched the creature's neck gingerly. A smile broke through his expression immediately.

"It's _soft_!"

The Mok snorted, causing the boy to jerk his hand back, but the creature's nose nudged his hand in obvious entreaty and Jinto smiled and reached out once more, this time a little more confidence.

Mitchell smirked at Ronon, who scowled.

"Maybe it just likes boys…"

"He likes _me_, too," she reminded him, reaching out and touching the Mok's silky neck as well.

"And _women_, then…"

"They like the Jaffa… _and_ Sheppard's team…"

Ronon sighed and reached out and touched the Mok. After all that, there was no way he could chicken out of touching the Mok – not if _Rodney McKay_ had touched one.

"It's soft, huh?" Jinto said, grinning broadly at being included in the little group. He'd been pretty much grinning the entire time they'd been there. With good reason, too, since he was the only Athosian that had accompanied Mitchell on the trip.

Teyla had been invited, of course, but Teal'c and several of the Jaffa had gone to check on some of the planets previously held by the system lords and Teyla had opted to accompany them, instead. Which didn't surprise anyone, really.

McKay and Sheppard had been invited as well, but since Teyla was leaving, they'd both decided to take a week off and go on an extended visit with the Light Ones – and their offspring. They'd invited Ronon, but the as much as he admired and respected the Light Ones, they still made him a little uncomfortable – he didn't like people playing with his feelings, even if they didn't _mean_ to be. Since Mitchell had warned him about the females being even worse – and he still hadn't seen one of them to find out just how potent they might be – he declined.

Which had led Mitchell to inviting him to come with her when she went to check on the Mok breeding program – which hadn't sounded all that interesting to him. Until Teyla had mentioned to him that they were so rare that as far as anyone knew they were only in existence on two planets – the two Melony's Jaffa had placed them on (one on either side of the Stargate).

Something that rare was definitely worth looking at, Ronon had decided.

Jinto had been in the commissary when Mitchell had been discussing the trip with Weir, and had (in typical fashion for any kid his age) listened in on the conversation, trying very hard to make her notice him while at the same time trying to be inconspicuous so she (or Weir) wouldn't send him away. Weir had noticed first, since she was sitting in the right position to see him while Melony had her back to him, but her smile had quickly made Mitchell aware of what was going on, and since the planet she was going to was heavily defended and in one of the safest parts of the galaxy (otherwise she never would have put the _Mok_ there) she decided that it wouldn't hurt anything to invite the boy – provided his father said it was all right.

He'd be good company, after all.

Which had turned out to be a good thing, since Carson was forced to decline an invitation as well, despite the fact that he would have loved the chance to get away with Melony for a week – even with company. He was working on a new gene sequencer and wasn't able to slip away just then, which meant that it was a good time for her to leave, really, since he tended to be as single-minded as she was when it came to working on something new or interesting.

So it was a small group that went; Ronon, Jinto and Mitchell, accompanied by a small honor guard of Jaffa who had mates on the planet the Mok had been settled on, and two Marines, so they took a single Jumper and three days of traveling – through gates and straight – found Ronon and Jinto being introduced to the rarest species in the universe.

Now it was just a matter of getting them to _touch_ them.

Ronon's eyes widened slightly as he dug his hand into the shaggy fur that covered the creature's chest.

"_Wow_…"

Mitchell smiled, amused by the reaction – which was pretty much the same reaction everyone had.

"Told you."

"No wonder they were so prized…"

She'd told him all about the history of the Mok, of course – what they knew anyways.

Melony nodded.

"The Jaffa are going to keep that from happening again, though. We-"

"Colonel Mitchell!"

Sergeant Pascal Sanders came trotting up, stopped just short of the Mok – which had shied only a little at the shout – and saluted. A salute that Melony returned smartly.

"Sergeant?"

"We just checked in with Atlantis, Colonel, to let them know we've arrived."

"And they all changed their minds and decided they want us to come back and get them?" she asked, smiling.

He shook his head, his expression serious.

"Doctor Weir's sick… and the rest of Atlantis is under quarantine…"


	2. 02

Mitchell frowned.

"What?"

Duck shrugged, helplessly.

"He said that Doctor Weir is sick and that-"

"_Who_ said that?" Ronon asked, interrupting.

"Doctor Cain."

"What was he doing in the control room?" Mitchell asked, knowing that it wasn't a question Duck would be able to answer.

"He said that Doctor Beckett was busy and that Atlantis was under quarantine – no one allowed in or out."

"Which is standard operating procedure…" Melony said, softly.

"Why?" Jinto asked.

"To keep the sickness from spreading," Dex answered. That answer was universal, because it wasn't just the Atlanteans who knew how to handle diseases or epidemics. His own people had a similar policy – and he was certain that the Athosians or any other intelligent beings were the same.

Mitchell nodded.

"I wonder what's going on?"

"He didn't say, Colonel," Sanchez replied. "Only that Doctor Beckett was too busy to come talk to me personally."

"You asked for him?"

Duck nodded.

"I figured you'd want me to get all the information I could."

She nodded her agreement.

"What do you want to do?" Ronon asked, looking over at her and trying to ignore the Mok that was imperiously butting his hand to get him to continue petting him.

"I want to talk to Carson and find out what's going on."

Then they could decide what to do from there.

OOOOOOOOOO

"I told Major Lorne that I wanted to talk to _Carson_…"

The person on the other end of the transmission hesitated, and then shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Colonel Mitchell. He said he's too busy to talk."

"Where's Cain?"

"He's asleep."

Mitchell frowned, and glanced over her shoulder at Ronon for just a moment before turning back to the medic who had been summoned to the control room when she'd called Atlantis back.

"_Already_? He just spoke to Sergeant-"

"He was very tired, ma'am. What can I do to help you?"

"You can tell me what's going on."

"We have a code red contamination," the medic said. "Doctor Beckett thinks it might have come from one of the away teams, but he isn't certain and he decided to quarantine the city before it could spread."

"The city didn't shut itself down?" Mitchell asked.

In reply she received a curious look.

"Why would it do that?"

"Because…" Melony allowed herself to trail off. "How many other teams do you have offworld right now?"

"I wouldn't know, ma'am."

"Find out."

There was a brief hesitation, and the medic nodded, turned and asked someone off the video feed a question Melony couldn't hear. Then she looked back at the camera.

"Two teams. Doctor McKay and Colonel Sheppard, and the Jaffa's team."

Which meant Teal'c.

"Has Colonel Sheppard checked in yet?"

"I don't-"

"Find out."

Again the turn and the asked question, and she turned back.

"Not yet."

"Very well. Tell Doctor Beckett I want to hear from him as soon as he's available."

Looking relieved, the medic nodded.

"I will."

"Mitchell out."

Melony ended the broadcast, and allowed the gate to shut down.

"Something's not right," Ronon said almost immediately.

"Cain didn't look tired to me, Colonel," Duck said.

Mitchell nodded, frowning.

"What do we do?" Jinto asked.

"I need to get a hold of Sheppard and find out if he knows what's going on."

"What about your Jaffa in the city?" Dex asked. "They might know something…"

"I didn't see any of them in the transmission feed… did you?"

Which was unusual, really, since the view the camera had given also gave a good view of one of the doors that led out of the control room – a door that was always guarded by a Jaffa.

Ronon frowned, realizing that he hadn't.

"No."

"Maybe _they're_ sick, too?" Jinto asked.

_Not a chance_, Talon said, putting in his own two cents worth for the first time – although she'd felt his growing unease as she'd been talking to the medic.

"Not likely," Melony said, shaking her head. "The Jaffa carry symbiotes. They don't get sick."

"Then where are they?" Ronon asked.

Mitchell shrugged.

"I don't know," she said, "but something is definitely not right."

"So we go back?" Duck asked.

She shook her head.

"No. If we're wrong and there really is an illness, we can't risk exposing you guys to it." She wasn't worried, of course; she had Talon.

"Well? What, then?" Dex asked.

"We get in touch with Sheppard."

"They're not going to be near a radio…"

Sheppard and McKay would be up in the mountain retreat of the Light Ones and they'd have left their Jumper in the only clear landing area that would be out of the way – one that was a good hike away from the main colony. And even if they did happen to be close by, there was no guarantee that the radio signal would reach them.

"They're going to check in like we did," Melony said. "If they haven't already. If they get the same runaround that we just did, it won't take them long to realize something's going on. So they'll be trying to reach us. If nothing else, they might have more information than we do."

And she wasn't going to sit here and wait for Atlantis to call them back.

"And if they don't know anything?"

"Then we go to Atlantis and see for ourselves…"

Ronon nodded. That was fine with him.

"We should probably take back up, though…"

"Agreed. You guys get ready to leave. I'm going to recruit some forces."

With over a hundred thousand Jaffa on this planet, there would be plenty to choose from.


	3. 03

"That was close…"

"You handled it badly."

The woman gave Doctor Cain a dirty look.

"I didn't expect all the questions. I don't see why you couldn't have spoken to them. They were already-"

"They _know_ this one," he interrupted. "They would have realized something was wrong."

"If they haven't already."

"We will be ready for them if they call again."

"Colonel Mitchell is dangerous. They all agree."

"I know." Cain looked over at the others standing around – all of whom had been out of sight from the video feed. "Find the ones who escaped. We will take care of the rest."

Elizabeth Weir raised an eyebrow from where she was standing beside Lorne.

"And the Jaffa?"

"Leave them where they are. They're not going to be a problem."

There were nods all around, and the group split up.

OOOOOOOOO

Rodney McKay smiled down at the infant he was holding.

"He's really very adorable, you know? And I'm not just saying that because he's my son…"

John Sheppard snorted, shaking his head.

"You're biased, McKay. Trust me."

Besides, Sheppard knew that the baby he was holding was much cuter – and not just because she was _his_.

"We should check in soon," Aiden Ford said, smiling down at the baby he was holding. Not his son, but carrying his name, which was just as good. Better, even, since that meant that he didn't have to worry about changing diapers.

"In a minute," McKay said, not taking his eyes from his son. He would have had his daughter in his arms, too, but he wasn't that comfortable with one baby – let alone two.

"Doctor Weir will get worried if she doesn't hear from us…"

Sheppard sighed, and nodded.

"Yeah. He's right, McKay. We need to go check in."

"Why don't _you_ go?" Rodney said, distracted. "I'll keep the babies company."

Since their mothers were sitting on large cushions only a few feet away, there didn't seem to be much worry that the babies would get lonely any time soon. Especially since there were fifty other Light Ones waiting in the wings (figuratively) in case they were needed. After all, the entire colony took care of the raising of their young. The mothers had plenty of help if they needed it.

Ford grinned, not at all surprised. Even if McKay hadn't had a baby in his hand, he'd have found something else to occupy him.

"I can go, sir."

Sheppard returned the smile and for a minute he was torn. But duty won out and he handed Mary over to her mother, who took her with a smile.

"I'll go, Lieutenant. You keep an eye on McKay. Make sure he doesn't slip that kid in his pocket and try to take him home with us."

Ford snickered, and turned back to little Aiden, while Sheppard stood up and headed for the entrance to the cave they had been in.

OOOOOOOOOO

The Jumper wasn't designed as a transport. Especially not when those who needed to be transported were several very large warriors and all their gear. It didn't matter, though. The Jaffa were packed in as tightly as they could be, but they didn't complain – and neither did Ronon or even _Jinto_, who was sitting in the copilot's chair beside Melony.

They hadn't tried to call in again – not yet. Instead, Mitchell had gathered up a group of twelve Jaffa (she would have taken more if they would have fit) and Ronon and Jinto (who she couldn't leave on the planet with only Jaffa for company) and had started their trip back to Atlantis.

It had taken them three days to get there, but only because she and Talon had wanted to stop in and check on a few other societies who were regaining control of their lives now that the Wraith weren't looming over them any longer. This trip would be faster. As the Jaffa were gathering their gear, Melony was going through the data bases of the Jumper, figuring out a path through the Stargates that they could take to get closer to Atlantis – just in case.

"Do you think they're okay?" Jinto asked in a small voice after a long silence. As much as he loved an adventure, this wasn't what he'd expected – and wasn't fun or exciting.

Mitchell looked over at him, torn between the truth and a reassuring answer. And was kept from having to choose when Ronon spoke up before she could.

"They're fine."

The boy turned in his chair to look at him, and Ronon's dark gaze was unwavering.

"You really think so?"

Ronon shrugged.

"If they're not, someone's going to pay."

Four of the Jaffa overheard him and nodded their own agreement, and Jinto turned back to Melony, who gave him a slight smile and a nod of her own.

"It might not be anything serious," she said. "It could just be that we're overreacting. We might get there and find that everything's okay and there's just some kind of bug going around…"

_Like Beckett would quarantine Atlantis for a little bug…?_

He wouldn't have to, Melony replied. Atlantis is designed to quarantine itself in the event of anything like that happening. It happened once already, remember?

She'd read the report and knew what the city was capable of doing.

"But you don't think so, do you?" he asked, looking pointedly at all the Jaffa.

Melony shrugged.

"It doesn't hurt to make sure you have all your bases covered, Jinto. Just in case."

The boy frowned.

"_Bases_?"

She felt Talon's snort of amusement and couldn't help the slight smile of her own.

"Just trust me on this one, kid."


	4. 04

It wasn't long before Sheppard was back. He walked into the cavern frowning, and Ford noticed instantly.

"What's up?"

"I couldn't get through to Atlantis…"

"Problems with the gate?"

This made Rodney look up from the baby he'd been cooing.

Sheppard shook his head.

"Not on our end. At least I don't think so."

"There's nothing wrong with theirs," McKay said. "I ran a diagnostic on it – on the whole system – just before we left."

"Maybe they're talking with someone else…" Ford suggested.

"I tried a couple of times," Sheppard said, shaking his head again.

"It could be a long conversation," Rodney pointed out.

"Maybe."

"But you don't think so…"

He shrugged.

"I think I'll go try again. Why don't you come with me and see if it's a problem with our side?"

"It's probably not. The gate didn't act weird when we came through it."

He just didn't want to leave. And besides, he was just a little on the lazy side when given the chance to be.

John didn't give him that opportunity, though.

"It won't take long. Come on."

"But-"

"McKay…"

Rodney made an exasperated noise and handed his son over to one of the Light Ones who had been sitting on a cushion mending a strap and hovering in case he was needed.

"This better not take long."

Ford handed Aiden over to one of the nursemaids as well, and stood up. If something was going on it was better that he was there to hear it. And if something wasn't, it wasn't like he couldn't come reclaim the baby when they had checked in.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

"Atlantis, this is Jumper 4, come in…"

Ronon looked over at Mitchell.

"They're not answering, now. That's got to be a bad sign."

"Unless something is wrong with the Stargate?" Jinto said, knowing that Melony wouldn't mind him joining the conversation – unlike many adults. It hadn't taken him long to figure her out, after all.

She shook her head.

"Something's up."

They were hovering by an active gate – one that led to a large planet and yet another Stargate that was closer to home. Mitchell had decided to give hailing Atlantis another try. But this wasn't any better.

"What do we do?" Ronon asked. He had a few ideas of his own, but Mitchell knew Atlantis better – and these were her people they were talking about. He also respected that she knew what she was doing – most of the time – so he was willing to follow her lead.

"Let's try Sheppard," she said, changing frequencies on the Jumper's communications system.

"Good luck," Ronon said, shaking his head. "You're never going to get those two away from those babies."

She smiled, despite the seriousness of the situation.

"Ford, then."

OOOOOOOOOOO

"I'm telling you, it's working just fine. They're just not answering."

"It has to be broken then. There's no reason they wouldn't answer."

"Well there must be."

"McKay, check it again."

"I've checked it _twice_. It's going to be exactly the same outcome and-"

"Just do it."

Rodney grumbled, looking over at the active Stargate and making sure – again – that there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the event horizon. And again, it looked fine. Then he crouched down by the diagnostic equipment on the floor of the Jumper and started tapping on the keyboard.

_"Jumper 4 calling Colonel Sheppard…"_

He brought his head up so quickly he hit it on the control panel of the Jumper.

"That's _Colonel Mitchell_."

John nodded, already reaching for his headset.

"I know. Can you tell where she's calling from?"

McKay looked down at his readout and shook his head.

"Not yet."

"They supposed to be checking out the Mok," Ford said. "The-"

_"Jumper 4 calling Colonel Sheppard. Are you there, Colonel?"_

"I'm here," Sheppard answered. "Colonel Mitchell?"

Never hurt to make sure, after all.

"_Yeah_." There seemed to be a relieved sound to her voice. "_Where are you, Colonel?"_

"With the Light Ones. You?"

_"Have you tried to check in with Atlantis?"_

"Just now."

_"And?"_

"We couldn't get through. McKay's running a diagnostic of our equipment as we speak."

_"Tell him not to bother_," Mitchell said. "_We can't get through, either."_

Sheppard looked over at Rodney, who gave him an _I told you so_ look.

"Where are you, Colonel?"

_"On our way to your position."_

"What's going on, Melony?" Rodney asked.

_"We'll discuss it in person_," she replied.

"Something's definitely up," John said to the two men with him. "She's keeping us off the radio."

"Something in _Atlantis_," Ford said.

"That'd be my guess." He keyed his mike again. "We'll be here. Sheppard out."

OOOOOOOOOOO

"This is bad."

"We don't know that."

"They've figured out something is wrong. I told you ignoring their calls wouldn't work – it just made things worse."

"It was no worse an idea than trying to bluff with them with the quarantine story."

"What will they do now?"

Weir looked at the Stargate just in time to see it disconnect.

"They will come here."

"We don't have control of the city, yet."

"Then we'd better get control. And fast."


	5. 05

_Author's note: I might have spelled some names wrong here... I usually can check back on the spelling if I'm not certain, but I'm on my laptop while I write this, and no where near a reference. Sorry!_

OOOOOOOOOOO

The small group was huddled in one of the unused labs, nerves shot and tempers hanging on the thinnest of threads.

"We shouldn't stay here…"

Carson Beckett looked over at the speaker, a longhaired, thin-faced man with a scared expression. He didn't blame him for being frightened.

"We're safe here."

"You don't _know_ that."

"Kavanaugh… Grodin said it was safe."

"And now he's gone."

A couple of the other men in the group – and one of the two women – nodded their agreement. They didn't want to stay, either.

"He's only been gone a little while." Zalenka said.

"Long enough to be going and telling _them_ where we are," Kavanaugh pointed out.

"He isn't."

"We don't know that."

"I trust him."

"Yeah, well, I trusted _Doctor Cain_ – right up until he came into the lab and tried to kill me."

"He didn't try to kill you. He tried to _subdue_ you," one of the women said.

"He had a _gun_. I don't think he was there to play hopscotch."

"He-"

"Enough," Beckett hissed, as their voices started rising in anger. "They'll find us."

"They're going to find us _anyways_," one of the women said. "It's just a matter of time."

"Colonel Sheppard will be back soon," one of the other techs said. "When-"

"They're just going to get _him_, too," the woman said. "Who does he have with him? McKay and Ford. Three – or _two and a half_ – against the entire city? I don't think so."

"There's Colonel Mitchell, too," Grodin said, slipping into the room just in time to hear the last part.

The woman cast a guilty glance over to Beckett.

"She's not going to be any more help than the Jaffa… We all know how quickly they went down."

"It's better that they went down than having them turning on us," Kavanaugh pointed out.

None of them could deny that.

"We need to warn the offworld teams," the woman said.

Grodin shook his head.

"There's no way we can warn Sheppard or Mitchell. Not without taking over the control center."

And they all knew that wasn't going to happen.

"So what can we do?" the woman asked.

"We can try to find out what's going on," Beckett said.

"_What's going on_?" Kavanaugh repeated, incredulously. "The entire city is under control of some kind of body snatchers, that's what's going on!"

"But who? And why? And why did the Jaffa go down so quickly when they should be more immune to that kind of thing because of their symbiotes?" Beckett asked. "Those are the things we need to find out. And we need to find them out as quickly as we can."

"I've been monitoring the control room," Grodin said – unnecessarily, since they all knew that he had been – "…and they haven't made any offworld calls. They've received two transmissions from Colonel Mitchell and ignored the other ones that came in…"

"Which means that if Colonel Sheppard tried to check in, he might realize something is wrong…" Zalenka said.

Grodin nodded, and then glanced at Beckett.

"Colonel Mitchell tried calling again, but they didn't open the channel to answer. They did, however, manage to listen in on a conversation between her and Colonel Sheppard. They're meeting up on the Light One's world."

"So they _do_ know something's wrong," Carson said, feeling a surge of relief.

"They must suspect something," Grodin agreed. "What do you think they'll do?"

Carson frowned.

"How should I know?"

"_You're_ sleeping with her," Kavanaugh pointed out.

Beckett flushed.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"You know her better than we do," Kavanaugh said, somewhat defensively. "What do you _think_ she'd do?"

"They'll probably fly in direct and cloaked," Grodin said. "If they can't get the Stargate to activate – or if they think something's going on – they're not going to risk coming into an ambush…"

Carson nodded, reminded again that Grodin had done very well in the self-defense and tactical maneuvering classes that Melony had insisted all the civilians take. It was definitely paying off now.

"The question is; how do we warn them that they can't trust Weir?" Zalenka asked. "Or anyone else…"

"We have to get to them before the others do," Grodin said.

"And how do we do that?"

"Figure out something," Carson said. "Some way to signal them that they can pick up but the control center won't."

Zalenka frowned, but it wasn't an annoyed frown.

"Rodney's with Colonel Sheppard. We should be able to figure out something that he'll pick up. If he's looking for it."

"Get to it, then," Beckett ordered – even though he didn't really have any authority over them. "You three are with me," he said, gesturing to the three medics in the group.

"Where are you going?" Kavanaugh asked.

"We're going to get samples from the Jaffa," Carson told him – and the others. "I want to find out what's happening and how to stop it."


	6. 06

The area around the gate looked exactly like she remembered, but they didn't take much time to look around. The Jumper hovered as they watched the gate disengage, and then Mitchell keyed her radio.

"Sheppard, this is Mitchell, do you copy?"

The response was instant.

_"This is Sheppard, we copy."_

"Where are you, Colonel?"

_"Just waiting for you. Where are you?"_

"By the gate."

"_We'll be there in a minute. Sheppard out."_

OOOOOOOOOO

John turned to Kale, who was watching with concern.

"Are you _certain_ you would not like us to accompany you, Colonel Sheppard?"

Sheppard shook his head.

"I'd love to have you, Kale, but we don't dare risk it. If something really has gotten everyone at Atlantis sick, we can't risk allowing it into your population as well."

"And if it _isn't_ an illness, but is instead something that threatens your people more directly?"

"We'll have to handle it."

Kale nodded. It was, after all, their decision, and he had made his offer. It was all he could do.

"If there is anything we can do, call. We'll be ready to aid you."

John smiled, touched.

"Thanks. We'll let you know when we know."

He shook the Light One's hand and gestured for the others to get into the Jumper, and Kale, Char and several of the Light Ones watched as the ship rose into the air and headed off without a sound.

"We should help them," Char said, his voice a growl of frustration. "They're our _allies_."

"We can only help them if they want our help," Kale replied, shaking his head. "But we will be ready if they ask."

It was all they could do.

OOOOOOOOOOO

It was obvious that the Jaffa were relieved at a chance to stretch their legs after such a long time in the cramped Jumper. Mitchell set a perimeter of guards – because the Dark Ones were still a threat – told Jinto to stay close (which was unnecessary) and then she, Duck and Ronon stood near the Jumper and waited, with several Jaffa looming in the background as an unofficial honor guard watching over their goddess.

They didn't have long to wait. Only a few minutes later, Ronon nudged her, his gaze watching the faraway mountains. Melony looked as well and saw a small speck moving towards them and getting larger as it approached. A moment later, the other Jumper settled in front of them and the rear hatch opened.

Mitchell and Ronon walked over with Duck and a couple of the Jaffa as McKay, Sheppard and Ford exited the ship.

"What kept you?" she asked, sarcastically.

John smiled.

"We thought about _flying_ in, but didn't want the Jaffa to shoot the Light Ones down by mistake."

Not to mention, flying with the Light Ones would have taken a lot longer – and would have left them without the added advantage of the other Jumper.

"Have you had any luck contacting Atlantis?" Mitchell asked, changing the subject and the tone of the conversation.

Sheppard shook his head.

"We didn't even try once we stopped talking to you. Something's obviously wrong, and I think we're better off sneaking in and finding out what it is before we make another attempt."

"Through the _Stargate_?" Jinto asked. He had been standing by the Jumper, but had followed Mitchell and Ronon over when they'd met Sheppard and the others.

Melony looked at Sheppard, clearly asking him his opinion of that idea. And Sheppard shook his head.

"I'd say that's a bad idea…"

"_Whyso_?" Rodney asked. "We could find out-"

"Because we'd also be setting ourselves up for an easy ambush," Ronon answered.

Mitchell nodded.

"Not to mention, they'd know we suspected something and would be far more cautious than they might be now…"

"What's the plan, then?" Ford asked.

"We'll go through a _different_ gate, and fly direct the rest of the way, do a flyby of the city and see what we can find…"

"_Cloaked_, of course," Sheppard added.

"Definitely."

McKay nodded, excited because he'd be able to have a part to play in things right away. A part that was _totally_ safe, really.

"We can do a scan of the city with the Jumper's sensors and see if there are any life forms there that don't belong."

"We won't be able to do anything about them from the Jumper, but we'll know where they are and we can land and clear them out before they even know what's going on."

"Or we'll know if there's _nothing_ wrong," Mitchell added. "So we'll be able to find Weir and Beckett and find out what this illness is that they've reported."

"But you don't believe the illness story, do you?" Ford asked.

Melony glanced over at Jinto, who looked small and scared. And she shrugged.

"I don't know. Let's wait and see what we find out when we get there."

"Are we leaving Jinto here?" Sheppard asked, looking at the boy, too. Obviously an assault on Atlantis wasn't the place for a child.

Mitchell frowned.

"We can leave him with the farmers."

"Why not the _Light Ones_?" Duck asked, and then he grinned as he figured it out on his own. "Never mind."

Leaving a teenaged boy with a group of pheromone spewing naked aliens was a terrible idea. Leaving him with the _farmers_ was much safer.

"But I want to come, too," Jinto told them.

Melony shook her head. There was no way in hell she was taking him with her. Not when either scenario was dangerous.

"It's too dangerous. You'll be safe with the-"

"But I-"

"She _said_ you're staying," Ronon interrupted, glaring at the boy with his killer stare.

And that was that.

Mitchell hid her smile, and glanced over at Ronon, whose eyes were sparkling with amusement that belied his stern words. Sometimes a scary reputation could definitely come in handy.


	7. 07

"This isn't going to work, Carson…" one of the medics – a newcomer to Atlantis named Shea, but one that knew Carson a little from when they'd been interns together – said in a whisper so soft that Beckett almost missed what she was saying. "We're not soldiers. We're going to get caught."

"We should go back," the other medic agreed, looking around the deserted corridor nervously.

As much as Carson agreed with them – and he desperately wanted to go back to the room that the others were waiting in – he shook his head.

"We need to find out what's going on. The Jaffa are the first clue, so we need to get to them."

"We don't even know if they're still in their quarters."

"They're there," he disagreed. "I can't even imagine how much trouble it'd be to move almost three hundred Jaffa – especially when there's no reason to move them when they're not going anywhere if you leave them where they are…"

"What do you think happened?" Shea asked.

"I don't know," Beckett said, shrugging. "But if it's some kind of virus, the last people who should have been affected are the Jaffa…"

And they'd gone down so quickly that most of them hadn't even known something was wrong.

"Which is why we're checking them out, first…" Shea said.

"Aye. We expect help to come, but if Melo- Colonel Mitchell realizes something's wrong, the first backup she's going to bring will be the Jaffa – and we have to assume that they're not going to fare any better than the ones here did."

Which meant they needed to neutralize the threat to the Jaffa – or at least figure out what happened so they could help Mitchell and the others when they finally showed up. Which he hoped would be soon, but also hoped wouldn't be until they knew what had happened.

He turned and looked down a corridor they were going to cross.

"Come on. The Jaffa quarters are just down this way…"

Not exactly cheerful, but willing to try whatever they could, the others followed.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

"Well?"

Zelenka shrugged, looking at the readout in front of him.

"I don't know what to even _suggest_…"

Grodin sighed.

"Well, we're assuming that when they do show up, they're going to be in a cloaked Jumper, right?"

The Czech nodded.

"I'm sure they will. I would."

"And McKay will be with them."

"Yes."

"So we set up a message McKay can find."

"And the others can't," Zelenka added, qualifying it.

"Yeah."

They were both quiet again.

"Something in the Jumper telemetry?" one of the other techs suggested. "McKay will be in the Jumper, but whoever is running things around here doesn't even seem to be accessing the hangars…"

They knew that, because they'd been keeping close track of things by tapping into the computer systems to watch what was going on.

Grodin looked at Zelenka.

"Something in the telemetry of the Jumpers?" he echoed.

"It'd have to be something that the sensors in the control room can't pick up," Zelenka said.

"Something really _subtle_," Kavanaugh added, coming over to give his two cents worth as well.

"If it's _that_ subtle, how do we know Colonel Mitchell and the others will even find it?"

There was another silence in the room as the men all thought, and eventually Zelenka shrugged again.

"Rodney's going to do a scan when they come in. He'll find it. All we have to do is come up with something for him to see. Something that will warn them what's going on."

"Without telling the bad guys what we're doing – _or_ where to find us."

Which meant they couldn't just send out a signal on a radio or something. It'd be far too easy to track – and to jam. And that brought them right back to subtle.

"I still think telemetry through the Jumper is a good idea," Grodin said. "Unless they actually get on one, they're not going to see it."

"But to go from Jumper to Jumper like you're suggesting, we'd actually have to control a Jumper as well – and the bay is guarded."

Zelenka frowned.

"Not if we took control remotely."

"Of a Jumper?" Grodin asked, frowning.

"Of the computer system on the Jumper," Zelenka corrected. "Or some part of it. A _minor_ system. We couldn't actually get full control of a Jumper without being _on_ it – they're safeguarded against that the same way the Ancient gene safeguards the rest of the city – but we might be able to get control of the life support system and-"

"The life support system isn't a minor system," Kavanaugh objected.

"It is when the Jumper is sitting in a pressurized bay not being used," Grodin answered, before Zelenka could.

The Czech nodded.

"Exactly. If we can gain control of the life support system, we might be able to trigger telemetry without anyone noticing."

"Except McKay," Grodin said.

"Hopefully, yes…"

"It's not much of a plan," Kavanaugh noted.

The others all nodded.

"But it's all we have. So let's see if we can even try."

OOOOOOOOOO

"Shit…"

Carson shot a shushing glance over at Shea, who bit her lower lip, but then looked back down the corridor. They were maybe fifty feet from the entrance to one of the sets of Jaffa quarters, but they hadn't expected what they'd found. A guard – a Marine with a P90 who was watching the area intently – stood right outside the closed door.

"Now what?" the other medic asked.

Beckett hesitated, and then quietly pulled out the zat that was stuck into his shirt.

"Are you crazy? That's one of our guys…" Shea hissed.

"I know," he murmured. "I'll fix him later…"

Moving with all the care he could, and using every trick that Melony's classes had taught him about sneaking up on someone, he approached the guarded door. The guard turned – probably warned by some inner sense that had told him he was being stalked – but it was too late by then. Carson was close enough now to use the zat, and he did, firing it from the hip and dropping the Marine without so much as a yelp.

The others rushed out of the protective spot they'd been in, and Shea checked the downed man.

"He's okay, just out."

"Come on," Beckett said, opening the door to the Jaffa quarters. "We'll tie him up and put him with the Jaffa…"

"At least we know they're not dead," Shea said, grunting as she reached down to grab the unconscious man's legs.

"Who? The Jaffa?" the other medic asked.

"Yeah."

"Aye," Carson said, taking hold of the man's vest. "You don't put a guard on a room of corpses. Let's see what we can find out."


	8. 08

Eventually, they divided the Jaffa between the two Jumpers to keep them from being crowded. Rodney programmed the computers in the Jumpers with a route that would take them through two Stargates and one five hour direct flight that would put them in the Pegasus system as quickly and efficiently as possible. It would also keep from raising any alarms in Atlantis, because there was no way they'd be able to detect either Jumper on approach as long as they had their cloaks operating – which they would.

While McKay was doing that – under the guard of half the Jaffa – Mitchell and the others escorted Jinto to the Farmers' settlement with the rest of the Jaffa safeguarding them. Rella and her husband were more than willing to act as temporary guardians for the boy, and insisted that Mitchell take provisions for their trip before they left. The rest of the community agreed, of course – the Farmers were a very generous people and they believed they owed a debt to Melony and the others for introducing them to the Light Ones. While the Atlanteans didn't agree about the debt, they were grateful for the fresh provision, which would definitely taste better than the prepared meals that they'd brought with them.

While Sheppard and a couple of the Jaffa were being loaded down with baskets of food, Melony turned to Jinto, who had been very quiet – especially for him – and waited. Sure enough, he spoke up as soon as they were out of earshot of the others.

"Do I _have_ to stay here?"

She nodded, feeling bad for him, but having no other option.

"Yeah. It's the best place for you right now."

"But I don't want to stay here… _really_."

"I know, buddy, and I'm sorry. This isn't exactly how I intended for the trip to be. But your father wouldn't appreciate it if I brought you back to Atlantis knowing that there's either some kind of illness – or worse, some kind of foothold situation or something. So you have to stay here."

It was obvious that he'd pretty much expected her to say that, but like all teenagers, he had to at least try to make his case. They were the same no matter what galaxy they were from, she knew. He sighed and looked over at the Farmers and the kids that were gathered around watching the Jaffa with amazed expressions.

"I could stay on the Jumper…"

Melony smiled, but shook her head again.

"It's too dangerous."

"With all the Jaffa around me? How can it be?"

"There are almost three hundred Jaffa in Atlantis right now, and _something's_ still happening," she pointed out.

He sighed again, but since that had been his last argument and she'd quelled it pretty easily, he knew he was done. And so did Mitchell.

"Don't worry, Jinto. The Farmers are very nice people – a lot like your own, really. You'll be fine."

"And what if something happens to you?"

She shook her head.

"Talon won't let anything happen to me. Just keep your nose clean, and we'll be back before you know it."

He frowned and rubbed his nose, and she felt Talon's amusement at his reaction to yet another Earth slang he didn't understand and wondered how Jinto had managed to miss that one. She smiled and rested her hand on his shoulder (although she really wanted to tousle his hair, but knew he thought he was too old for that).

"Just stay out of trouble, okay?"

He nodded.

"Okay."

_Remind him about the Dark Ones, Hot Shot_

Good point.

"And don't even _think_ about exploring these woods, okay? There are serious dangers out there and I don't want to get back here only to find out you've been eaten. Or worse."

"I will."

"Are we about ready?" Sheppard asked, coming over and interrupting them. Melony looked over and saw that four of the Jaffa were carrying large picnic baskets – which made her have to fight to keep from smiling. John followed her gaze and didn't hide his own smile. "We have enough food to last us a week, probably."

She smiled, then, because his smile was contagious.

"We're feeding _Rodney_, remember?"

"Okay… a couple of days, then."

All of them were smiling as they walked over to the group of Farmers who were waiting to see them off.

OOOOOOOOOOO

The Jaffa barracks were a series of rooms that had once been very large conference rooms all along a single corridor. Doors had been placed in the walls that separated each room to connect them. While Weir had been concerned that this didn't give the Jaffa as much privacy as they may have desired, Melony assured her that they would much prefer things the way they were – although she did appreciate that Elizabeth was trying to look out for the Jaffa.

This connecting door thing was perfect, as far as Carson Beckett and the two medics with him were concerned, because once they were in one room, they wouldn't need to risk the corridor again in order to move between the various rooms.

"Oh my God…"

All three of them stopped at the edge of the first doorway, still holding their unconscious captive supported between them.

The Jaffa were here, all right. They were all over the place. The usually tidy barracks were littered with bodies as the Jaffa lay where they had collapsed, some sitting slumped over the tables in the room, some half in and half out of bunks, and many in various stages of getting their armor on. Obviously they'd been preparing for something when whatever had struck them down had happened.

"What could have done this?"

Carson shook his head, feeling pale and unsteady at the sight of the Jaffa – who he had always considered invincible, really – laid so low. And a bolt of fear that Melony really was coming to Atlantis, because if it could happen to the Jaffa, it could happen to her, too, because she carried Talon.

"I don't know," he finally said, shaking his head – although the rest of him was trembling a little as well. "Let's see if we can find out…"

They dropped their prisoner and tied him securely to one of the bunks, making sure that he didn't have any weapon or radio close at hand. That right there was a bit of a challenge, because all the weapons the Jaffa used were all over the place as well.

"This one's alive," Shea announced, moving to the closest of the fallen Jaffa and checking him. "You were right, Carson."

"This one is, too," the other medic confirmed as Carson moved over to check on one he recognized as one of Teal'c's lieutenants. That one, too, was alive.

Carson breathed a sigh of relief and stood up.

"Let's check them all and then start taking samples…"


	9. 09

They weren't really worried about anyone coming into the barracks and interrupting them. The Jaffa hadn't been touched in the day and a half since things had taken the odd turn at Atlantis – as their odd positions in the rooms could testify to – and it was fairly obvious that the whatever it was that had taken over the others weren't worried about the Jaffa coming around. Not if they'd only kept one guard on the room.

They worked quickly, though, and none of them could help the looks over their shoulders at the closed doors. Well aware of just how much Melony cared for them, Carson took the risk of taking the time to make sure each of the Jaffa was left in a more comfortable position than sprawled somewhere across a table of a chair. The ones in their bunks they left alone.

"Aren't you worried about them starving to death or something?" Shea whispered, as they were getting ready leave, their samples neatly and safely secured in a couple of medical pouches they'd brought along.

Carson shook his head. He'd checked several of the Jaffa just to make sure their symbiotes were still alive as well, and he hadn't seen any sign of dehydration, which he was sure he would have by then.

"Their symbiotes will sustain them for quite a while," he said, softly. "Hopefully we'll have it all figured out before it gets to be a problem…"

Hopefully they'd have control of the city back, too.

"What do we do about _him_?" the other medic asked as they passed the unconscious guard.

Carson hesitated, and then made a quick decision.

"We'll take him with us, too."

There were frowns from both of the others, but he shrugged.

"We can't risk someone finding him. And besides, we can take a sample from him as well – in case whatever knocked the Jaffa down is different somehow from whatever's going on with the human population of the city…"

They grumbled – mostly under their breath, since they were all afraid of getting caught – but they each grabbed a handful of uniform and started helping Carson pull their captive toward the room that the others had all holed up in.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"That should do it…" Zelenka said, tapping a final panel on the control module in front of him.

"If it works," Grodin added.

Zelenka shrugged.

"It'll work fine. It's just a matter of hoping that Rodney or one of the others picks up the signal – and that the people in the control room don't."

"It's not going to work," Kavanaugh said, shaking his head. "The odds of McKay looking for something that imperceptible are astronomical – at best. More than likely all they're going to be looking for are-"

"Do you have a better idea?" Grodin asked, annoyed.

"No." Not one that was safe, anyways. All he could think of was to send someone up to one of the higher towers and hope that they would be spotted when (and if) Mitchell and the others came looking to see what was wrong with the city.

"Then shut up."

It was a measure of just how much strain Grodin was under. He was normally fairly cordial to the others – even Kavanaugh – but now he was grumpy and irritable. Not that any of them were taking it personally. They were all pretty much scared, too, and had different ways of manifesting that.

"Are we going to be able to keep it going on remote?" Grodin asked after an uncomfortable moment of silence in the hangar.

Zelenka nodded.

"It's not taking much energy to keep the signal going, and if McKay finds – _when_ McKay finds it – it'll give us a somewhat private link to their Jumper so they can communicate with us initially…"

It wasn't really news to either of the others. They'd discussed this several times, after all, but no one was going to fault Zelenka for making sure the others knew what was happening exactly.

"Let's get back to the others," Kavanaugh said, looking around the Jumper bay uneasily. The last thing they needed was to get caught lurking in the area. It'd definitely tip someone off that something was going on – which would probably lead to an inspection that would turn up their little subsytem transponder.

Grodin and Zelenka both nodded their agreement, and they all headed back the way they'd come, making as little noise as possible and hoping that the interference Grodin had put in place to keep them from being tracked was still working.

OOOOOOOOOO

"How much longer?"

Mitchell sighed and looked over at McKay.

"You have the little thingie in your hand, Rodney. You _know_ how much longer."

McKay frowned.

"The little _thingie_, as you so precisely put it, is busy trying to sort out the various systems on Atlantis so it'll make for easier scanning and detection once we reach the city, Colonel. It's not a stopwatch."

At least not at that moment.

"Three hours," Sheppard said from the pilot's seat. "What are you going to have it scan for?"

"The usual," McKay said. "We'll start with basic life forms and systems – just to see if there's anything hiding inside our people – and work our way up to system analysis and computer memory banks…"

"You'll be able to do all that without them knowing we're there?" Ford asked, skeptically.

Rodney rolled his eyes.

"I could probably find out what they had for breakfast if I wanted to – and if I had enough time."

"Just find the Jaffa," Melony said. "That's going to be the first thing on our list once we know for certain that there's not really an illness in the city. If something's affecting the others, it shouldn't be affecting the Jaffa, so we're going to have to get in touch with them."

"And with Beckett," Sheppard added. "He'll know more than anyone about the state of our people…"

"As long as he isn't affected by whatever has the others," McKay added.

Mitchell scowled.

"Thank you, Mr. Optomistic."

"I was just saying…"

"I know. Just get it ready, okay?"

With a disdainful sniff, McKay turned his attention back to the control module in his hand. He was so unappreciated sometimes...


	10. 10

"Are you _out of your mind_?"

Carson Beckett shook his head.

"I had to bring him here."

"Why?" Kavanaugh asked, looking at the neatly trussed Marine, who was still out cold. "You realize whatever has _him_ can now get _us_?"

"If whatever it is hasn't gotten us yet, it's not likely to," Carson said, kneeling down in front of the Marine and checking the ropes he was tied with to make certain they were tight, but weren't so tight he was losing circulation in his hands and arms. "Besides, we couldn't leave him out in the hallway where someone might find him."

Kavanaugh looked like he was going to object, but he clamped his jaw tightly and kept his mouth shut. Which was probably just as well, really.

"Have you come up with any theories about what's going on around here, Carson?" Grodin asked, coming over and looking down at the captive with a little concern.

Like Kavanaugh, he wasn't _entirely_ convinced that they were all that safe from whatever was going on with everyone else – and he didn't _really_ like the idea of having one of the others in the same room with them. But he could understand the logic of bringing him back with them, and even had to agree that it was infinitely better than leaving him somewhere that someone might find him and realize that something was definitely wrong.

Carson shook his head.

"I'm not sure, Peter… but the Jaffa _aren't_ dead like we feared."

"No?"

"No. They're unconscious, though. We took samples, and I'll have a look at them – and some samples from our friend here – and see if I can't figure something out… have we heard anything from Melony or Colonel Sheppard?"

Grodin shook his head.

"We've got a signal going out to the Jumpers, but we're not positive they'll even see it."

"We hope they will, though," Zelenka added.

Grodin nodded.

"Yeah. It's a long shot, but it's definitely better than doing nothing."

Beckett looked back down at his captive.

"I need to get to my lab," he told them. It was the only place he could really examine the samples he'd taken – and the ones he was going to take from the Marine – and he was a little guilty about the fact that he couldn't even remember the man's name.

"It's probably guarded," Kavanaugh said.

Grodin frowned.

"Why would they have the infirmary guarded? There's no one in there right now – is there?"

Carson shook his head.

"No."

"I'll go with you," Shea offered. "You won't be able to do it alone…"

If it was guarded, they wouldn't be able to do anything, but if it wasn't, he'd definitely need help with the research he was going to be doing.

The other medics in the room all nodded as well – despite being afraid of being caught, or worse. They had their duties, they knew.

"We'll go with you," Zelenka volunteered. "You're going to need help if the infirmary is guarded – and even if it isn't, you're going to need someone who understands the signal jamming to help keep the others from being aware of what you are doing…"

Grodin nodded.

"Good point. But there should be more of you."

He would stay and keep track of the people in the control center – and keep an eye on the remote telemetry equipment they'd linked to the Jumper.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

"I _really_ need to go…"

Sheppard rolled his eyes.

"Come on… I _really_ do…"

"We might as well stop, John," Mitchell said, shrugging. "We're going to need to organize a little better before we hit Pegasus, anyways."

And that meant having the occupants of both Jumpers together so they could discuss tactics.

"All right."

McKay gave a relieved sigh and sat back in his seat, while Sheppard relayed the plan over to the other Jumper – which was being piloted by Sergeant Sanchez. The Astrophysicist had been complaining for over an hour that he needed to go, and he really had to by then. He wondered why the Jumpers weren't equipped with bathrooms, but knew it was probably because they weren't really meant to be long distance spacecraft. Or maybe the Ancients just had bigger bladders than he did.

"We'll stop just after we gate," Sheppard told Melony. "Should be safe to land on the planet – although we won't want to stay long."

"Why not?" McKay asked, curiously. He'd made the route, but hadn't really checked the databases to find out much information about the planets they were going to be passing by. Only enough to make sure they'd be able to get from one area to the next.

"Because the natives there are cannibals."

"Oh."

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Amazingly, the lab was unguarded. So was the entire infirmary. Carson eased into the room looking around carefully, but he couldn't see anyone. Not even a single guard. Of course, it had already been pointed out that there wasn't anyone or anything in the infirmary to guard, but he still couldn't believe his luck. And he certainly didn't trust it.

He looked over at Shea.

"Set a couple of guards, will you?" he whispered, gesturing to the entranceway.

The other medic nodded, and moved as Zelenka joined Beckett.

"Where are you going to start?" he asked, turning to the only security panel in the room and reprogramming it so it wouldn't record the room with the security monitors.

"With the Jaffa," Carson said.

If they could get the Jaffa back on their feet – or at least figure out why they were down – they might have a much better chance to get control of the city back.

Besides, the Jaffa were far more adept at this sneaking around hiding stuff than Carson was, that much was certain.


	11. 11

"Getting anything…?"

McKay rolled his eyes and looked over at Sheppard.

"I just started looking."

"I meant anything _obvious_," John clarified, ignoring the how stupid can you be look. "Like aliens that don't belong, or something like that."

Rodney shook his head, his attention back on the HUD.

"Nothing like that, but I haven't even had a chance to scan the entire city yet, so give me a second, will you?"

Since they couldn't communicate with Colonel Mitchell's Jumper without the possibility – _the very real possibility_ – that the people in the city would be able to listen in and know they were there, they were both going to make three passes over the city and depending on if they found the shield was up, they would either meet on the continent to the north, or land on one of the extended areas around the city that were far enough out that no one would notice any stray dust that might be kicked up (hopefully) but was close enough that they would have fair access to the outer corridors of the city.

OOOOOOOOO

"Anything?"

Mitchell wasn't actually doing the scanning. She was piloting the Jumper and wanted to have her mind only on what she was doing – just in case the city was occupied by a hostile force and somehow managed to detect their Jumpers. Atlantis had some very serious firepower defending it, and she needed to be able to dodge out of the way of anything that might be shot at them.

Duck shook his head, his gaze intent on the HUD.

"Nothing's coming up."

"Did you check everything?" Ronon asked.

Sanchez shrugged.

"Beats me."

He wasn't a tech-head, he was just more familiar with the systems than Ronon or any of the Jaffa – and that had made him the one in charge of doing the scans. They were really counting on McKay to do the serious scans. _Ford_ might have been a bit more help, but he was with Sheppard on the other Jumper – and truth be told, he didn't know that much more than Sanchez did, so it wasn't worth the effort of switching people around.

"No life-sucking aliens in the city?" Mitchell asked.

Duck knew enough to at least look for the presence of Wraith – or any other radically different alien life form.

"No, Colonel. Nothing like that is coming up on the screen."

"Too bad," Dex said from the seat right behind them. He was always up for killing some Wraith, after all.

"That's the third pass," Mitchell said, ignoring the remark. "Let's land and see if McKay got anything…"

OOOOOOOOOOO

"That's really odd…"

The medics in the room all turned to Carson Beckett, who was looking at a readout on one of the laptops. One that was connected to diagnostic equipment that had been fed several of the samples they'd snuck into the infirmary with them.

"What is?" Shea asked, walking over to look. Carson didn't have to answer her, though. She frowned at what she saw. "Wow… that _is_ odd. That's from one of the Jaffa?"

"Aye."

"What about the one from the guard?"

He shook his head.

"Still waiting on that one."

"What did you find?" one of the other medics asked. There wasn't room for all of them to look over his shoulder, since he was holding the laptop at an angle to get rid of some glare from the overhead lights.

"Let me check it once more," Beckett said, letting Shea answer for him. He turned the laptop a little more and started pecking at the keyboard.

OOOOOOOOOO

The landing was a smooth one – and even better, as far as they could tell no one in the city noticed they were there. At least there wasn't any indication of any scanning – passive or aggressive – from the city. And both Sheppard and Mitchell had given exact coordinates of where they would land, so they didn't have to worry about crashing into each other when they settled on the outermost part of the city.

They did have to worry about whether or not anyone in the city was scanning for additional life form – since once they left the Jumpers' protective cloaks they'd be as visible to the city sensors as anyone else – but in the end they'd decided it was just a risk they were going to have to take. One by one they appeared outside the range of the cloak, and as soon as Melony saw Rodney's expression she knew he'd found something.

"What did you find?" she asked without preamble as the Jaffa, Ford, Ronon and the others all gathered around Sheppard's Jumper to give them the benefit of the cloak once more.

McKay immediately went into lecture mode.

"Well, there aren't any signs of a foothold situation. No _obvious_ ones, anyways. No alien life forms as far as the sensors in the Jumpers can tell us, and no signs of any kind of battles within the city itself."

"But…?"

There _had_ to be a but coming.

"But I did pick up an odd signal coming from a Jumper in the Jumper bay…"

"What kind of signal?"

"Well, that's the odd part," McKay said, looking down at the laptop he'd carried out of the Jumper with him. It was still connected with a few wires to the systems of the Jumper. "The signal is apparently designed to be picked up only by a Jumper…"

"Why do you say that?" Sheppard asked.

"Because it's coming through the life support system of our Jumper from one of the Jumpers in the Jumper bay."

"Maybe it's just an anomaly?" Ronon suggested.

McKay shook his head.

"It's too much of a coincidence to be an anomaly. Believe me. So I checked it out… and look what I found…"

He turned his laptop toward them, and they could all see a recording of a very small flashing light. A light that was blinking in an irregular pattern.

Ronon scowled – as did the Jaffa who were looking over the shoulders of the others.

"What does it mean?" Ronan asked.

"It's Morse code," Duck replied, staring at the screen and concentrating on what he was seeing and obviously trying to make it out.

McKay nodded.

"Exactly. And it's addressed to _me_."


	12. 12

Ronon frowned.

"I don't understand."

"It's _telemetry_," McKay said. "They're using the systems in one Jumper to contact our Jumper – and probably yours, as well – to send a message that is obviously designed to be overlooked from anyone else in the city."

"Who's _they_, though?" Sheppard asked. "Obviously not Lorne, or Caine… They're the ones that told you the city was under quarantine."

"And it _has_ to be someone who knows a bit about the inner workings of the Jumpers and other systems of the city," Rodney added. "Because this signal wasn't set up using a paint by numbers kit…"

Ronon frowned.

"A what?"

"What does the message say?" Ford asked, curiously.

Rodney looked down at the screen, which was still running the continuous message.

"_Go to the closet and trust no one_…"

"Which means what?" Sheppard asked, frowning.

"How is _that_ addressed to you?" Sanchez asked at the same time.

McKay rolled his eyes, but he didn't complain about Sanchez speaking up – despite being a junior member of the group. For one thing, Sanchez had already proven himself to be competent, and for another, Sanchez was a dangerous young man McKay didn't want to antagonize.

"Oh, did I leave out the beginning? Where it says _Rodney_ go to the closet and trust no one…?"

"What does it mean, though?" Sheppard asked. "There have to be at least a couple hundred closets in the city… how do we know _which_ closet?"

"It depends on who sent the message," Mitchell said.

"_McKay's_ closet?" Ronon asked.

Sheppard snorted.

"Have you _seen_ all the crap in his closet? Nothing else will fit in it – especially not people."

"If we can't trust anyone, how are we supposed to trust this message?" McKay asked, pointedly ignoring the comment.

Mitchell frowned down at the message.

"We have to trust the message. We probably don't have time to wander the entire city trying to figure out what's going on – especially not if there's someone who can tell us."

"If it's not a trap," Ford said.

Sheppard shrugged.

"We don't have a choice, really. Melony's right. We don't have time to roam the city. And we already know some of the people we can't trust, we should just avoid everyone that we can until we get to this closet and see who's there…"

"Which is _where_?" McKay asked, sarcastically.

Sheppard turned to Melony.

"If _Beckett_ is one of the ones that sent the message, then he could have meant that little broom closet that you hang out in when you want to be left alone…"

"Beckett's _one of them_," Duck said. "He's the one who said there was a quarantine."

"_He_ didn't say it," Melony corrected. "You told me that Cain said it."

Sanchez hesitated, and then nodded reluctantly.

"Yeah, it was _Cain_."

"But it's pretty far-fetched to think it's _that_ closet," McKay objected. "It's-"

"It's fairly well isolated," Sheppard interrupted. "If I were hiding from aliens in the city-"

"We don't have any _evidence_ of aliens," Rodney said.

"If I were hiding from anyone in the city, one of the first places I'd choose is someplace isolated."

Mitchell nodded.

"It's as good a place to begin as any," she said. "If we don't find anything there, then we can look elsewhere."

"Or we might find something on the way," Ford suggested.

Good point.

Mitchell looked at Sheppard. It was _his_ decision, after all. She outranked him, but the city was his responsibility and she'd go by whatever he decided.

He didn't have any trouble at all making the decision.

"Let's get moving, people," he said, hefting his, but then putting it down. "If you see anyone, put them down with zats. We don't want to risk hurting one of our people."

"And if _they_ shoot at us?" one of the Jaffa asked.

"Put them down," Mitchell repeated. "But _non-lethal_ force only. Until we know what's going on, we don't want to risk arbitrary gunfights."

The Jaffa nodded. None of them made a move to leave their staff weapons behind – because they were more than capable of using them as weapons without firing them – but they did loosen the zats they all carried in their holsters.

"You know where you're going?" Mitchell asked.

Sheppard nodded.

"I'll take one team through the southern entrance, you take the other through the western. We'll meet in the corridor right in front."

"If we don't get caught by whatever it is that caught the others…"

He shrugged.

"There is that."

"See you soon," Mitchell said, smiling. She gestured to half the Jaffa, Ronon and Duck, and headed off toward the city.

The others turned to Sheppard.

"Let's go."

OOOOOOOOOO

"This is _crazy_, you know?" Kavanaugh hissed, softly. "They're never going to figure that message out – assuming anyone even gets it."

Peter Grodin silently wished for the hundredth time that he'd come alone, but he answered anyways.

"McKay will get the message."

"And he'll assume that it's a _trap_."

"He might," Grodin conceded.

"And then what?"

"Then he'll come."

"Assuming he figures out where to go… _I_ never would have."

"You've never been here."

"It's a _closet_."

"I know."

Kavanaugh made an annoyed noise, but then settled in to wait, well aware that the less noise the better just then.


	13. 13

"Are you sure this is right?" one of the medics asked, looking at the laptop that held the results from the first of the Jaffa blood tests.

Carson looked over, annoyed.

"Aye. I'm certain. We took several samples, and they all came back with the same results."

"But, then… the Jaffa are going to die…"

"Not necessarily," Shea replied, shaking her head. "The results tell us only that the symbiotes are in some kind of stasis. They're not dead or the Jaffa in the barracks wouldn't still be alive."

"And if the symbiotes weren't aiding the immune systems of those Jaffa, they'd already be showing signs of infections of all sorts," Carson added. "We know it doesn't take long."

It hadn't taken much time at all for Melony when Talon had jumped into Jack O'Neill to save his life, after all. And far more time than that had already passed since the weird happenings on Atlantis.

"So something shut down the symbiotes… but is that what has control of Weir and the others?" Shea asked, curiously – even though she knew Beckett didn't know any more than she did.

Predictably, Carson shrugged.

"We're going to have to wait for the results from the blood test I took from the Marine guarding the Jaffa…"

"What kind of creature could knock out the Jaffa that quickly and at the same time take over the humans?" the other medic asked.

Shea shook her head.

"Maybe it's not the same thing…"

"It's too much of a coincidence to be separate attacks," Beckett said.

"We need to let the others know about this," the other medic said. "They have to warn Colonel Mitchell."

Carson nodded, his own worry quite plain on his tired face.

"I don't understand," Shea said. "Why?"

"Because Colonel Mitchell carries a symbiote," Carson explained. "And when she comes – and she'll probably bring a back up force of Jaffa – they're all in the same danger that the Jaffa here are."

OOOOOOOOOOO

It didn't take long for things to go bad. Not that Sheppard was expecting it to be all that easy, but he knew the city as well as anyone, and had the Ancient gene so he could control any of the technology available that might make things go smoother, so he did expect to at least make it to the rendezvous point with minimum fuss.

What he didn't expect was for the Jaffa to go down.

It happened almost instantaneously. They'd just reached the first of the inner corridors leading to the stairwell he'd planned for them to take up to the closet, when the first of the Jaffa suddenly dropped. Since his group consisted of Jaffa who'd never been to Atlantis before (which didn't make them any less valuable when it came to a potential fight) he'd had most of the Jaffa taking the middle of the group while he took point with McKay and Ford brought up the rear with another Jaffa.

A loud thudding noise from behind had caused him to turn, and he saw that four of his six Jaffa were sprawled on the floor, clearly unconscious.

"What the-"

McKay didn't even finish the sentence before the other two Jaffa fell, without a word, to the floor, their staff weapons skidding across the floor to land against the other wall of the corridor.

"What the hell happened?" Ford asked, jumping forward and kneeling beside the one he'd been walking with.

"Is he alive?" Sheppard asked, his zat out and ready, looking around for some kind of trap.

"Yeah. He's just out."

"Check for a dart or something," Sheppard ordered, moving just a little so McKay could kneel down beside one of the other Jaffa to do that, too.

It didn't take long to check. Ford shook his head.

"Nothing, sir. No dart. No injury of any kind."

McKay scowled.

"There must be _something_. Jaffa don't just collapse."

"I don't _see_ anything," Ford told him. "Do you?"

"It's probably something infinitesimal," McKay said, still looking over the neck and face of the Jaffa he was checking.

Sheppard looked at Ford.

"How are you feeling?"

"Fine."

"I feel fine, too," McKay said.

"Yeah, but _you_ weren't walking right beside one of them," John replied. "Ford was. If it was a dart or something, it would have hit him, too."

Aiden shook his head.

"I didn't feel anything, sir."

"What do we do?" McKay asked, looking just a little panicked. Of course, he'd just lost all the Jaffa who'd been guarding his back, so it was understandable.

"We need to get in touch with Colonel Mitchell," Sheppard said.

"She's not going to be back at the Jumpers," McKay reminded him. "Her team left when we did."

John nodded, making a quick decision. It wasn't one he wanted to make, but it was the only one he _could_ make at the moment.

"Let's get these guys into one of the side rooms," he said, holstering his zat. If an attack was coming, it would have already come. "We can't leave them here to be found."

"Then what?"

"Then we haul ass to the rendezvous point and find out what the hell is going on around here."


	14. 14

At the same time Sheppard's team was running into its unexpected difficulties, Colonel Mitchell and her team were having similar troubles – although they, of course, didn't know that something was wrong with Sheppard's team just then. They reached the lowest opening on the Western side of the closest building – which was pretty much an entire city away from where they were going to end up. You couldn't be too careful though, and she'd learned that long before she'd blended with Talon – who was in total agreement.

The first indication she had that things were far from okay was an odd sensation that seemed to come from the very center of her being. Even as she felt it – an odd, almost gassy feeling that suddenly increased into a pressure that made it feel like she was going to blow from the inside out – she found herself falling. And she was unconscious even before she hit the floor of the corridor.

Which was when the others in the group became aware of the situation. Duck gave a muffled cry of alarm as he leaped forward from his spot in the middle of the group to try and catch Mitchell as she fell. Only to trip over one of the Jaffa when he went down just as silently.

"Son of a bitch!"

He was experienced enough not to shout, but his hissed whisper was plenty to depict just how surprised he was. Ronan was just as surprised, and he dropped into a crouch immediately, looking around for a target.

One never presented itself, though. Whatever had happened, it wasn't an ambush, because no one came after them. Still looking around, his weapon high and steady in his hand, Ronon reached down with his free hand and pressed it lightly against the neck of the Jaffa that was closest to him. As he did so, he looked at Sanchez, who was doing the same thing with Mitchell.

"She's alive."

Dex nodded.

"He is, too."

"Did you see anything?"

Ronon shook his head.

"No. You?"

Duck shook his head, too, but before he could answer Mitchell groaned softly and moved under his hand. She rolled over, eyes opening and looking around – although she didn't seem to be focusing very well.

What was that?

It took Talon a moment before he answered, and Melony sensed that he was trying to figure that out himself.

_I'm not sure…_

His 'voice' was weak and sounded somewhat sick.

Are you okay?

_Yeah… just give me a minute_

"Colonel?"

This was external, and Melony looked up to see Sanchez and Ronon Dex both looking down at her, worriedly.

"Yeah…"

"What happened?"

"I don't-" She realized then that she wasn't the only one down. "What the hell…?"

Duck shrugged, helplessly.

"They went down the same time you did."

"They're alive," Ronon added. "But they're not coming around."

It only made sense, after all, that if something affected _her_, it would affect the others the same way.

Talon?

_Beats me, Hot Shot_, he told her, still shaken. She felt more than a little shaken herself, since what Talon felt she felt, too. _Whatever it was, it's gone, now – but for a minute, it felt like something was trying to get inside my consciousness and overwhelm me_

"You guys didn't see anything?" she asked, sitting up, but forced to prop herself against one of the fallen Jaffas. A hand along his neck assured her that he really was alive – although he didn't seem to be coming around like she had.

Ronon and Duck both shook their heads.

"Think this has something to do with what's going on in the city?" Duck asked.

She shrugged, but felt Talon's agreement with the question.

"It's too much of a coincidence for it not to be related at least."

"Cain and the others aren't out, though," Ronon pointed out.

_Neither are they_

"Neither are you guys," she said, repeating what Talon had said for their benefit – although it was exactly what she'd have said herself. She looked down at the Jaffa once more, frowning. "But it does explain why you didn't see in Jaffa in the room when you spoke with Cain, and why I didn't see any when I called them back, either."

"If it's happened to our Jaffa here, then it probably happened to the entire population," Duck clarified.

"Exactly. And I'm going to assume it's happened to Sheppard's group as well – but we need to make sure."

She held her hand up and Ronon pulled her easily and smoothly to her feet.

"What do we do about the Jaffa?" Duck asked, looking down at them. "We can't leave them here…"

"We'll have to put them in one of the side rooms," she said after a quick conference with her symbiote. "Talon thinks they'll be safe there – as long as no one finds them – and no one's come down here yet, so we can assume they don't know we're here, yet."

Ronon nodded.

"We'll do it."

Mitchell didn't look all that steady just then, and the Jaffa all weighed more than she did.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"You know, I didn't _really_ sign up for this kind of thing…" Shea muttered, softly.

Carson turned his head to look behind him, and couldn't help the wry smile. He didn't, either, really. The group was heading back to the room where they'd left the others, and they were all creeping near to the floor and looking around anxiously every time they passed a door or a cross corridor, zats in the hands of a couple, but no other weapons in sight. They looked like a motley crew of office geeks playing some kind of freaky hide and seek. Which wasn't that far off, really. They were _definitely_ trying to hide.

"I didn't, either," he whispered back. "But now you know why they told you not to bring stiletto heels."

She made a rueful face.

"Very funny."

He smiled again, and then turned back to the business at hand. They weren't too far from where they'd left Grodin and the others, now.


	15. 15

"We should go back…"

Peter Grodin shook his head.

"We told them to come here. We need to wait _here_."

Kavanaugh scowled.

"They're not coming. They would have been here by now. Look, we know that they made first contact with the control room over 24 hours ago, and a Jumper can make the trip – even going through a network of Stargates to make it a direct flight to come in unannounced like we expect them to – in less than 18 hours."

Grodin rolled his eyes. He was just as capable of running the numbers as Kavanaugh was, after all. Kavanaugh was a lot less of a jerk than he had been – and the rumor mill was working overtime saying that Colonel Mitchell and several Jaffa were responsible for the turnaround – but he was still more of a pessimist than Grodin could handle for long. He had faith in Mitchell and Sheppard – especially Sheppard, who he'd known longer. They were both smart and more than capable of figuring out that something was wrong from the few conversations that Grodin had managed to tap in on, and both were cautious enough that they'd know they needed backup when they came to check things out.

The only thing that had Grodin worried was that Mitchell would undoubtedly bring Jaffa with her, and when she did they'd probably fall victim to whatever it was that had brought the Jaffa in the city down. Maybe even Mitchell, for all he knew.

Hopefully, Sheppard would come as well – and maybe bring Light Ones. A whole bunch of giant wolves in the corridors of Atlantis would definitely be a lot of help. But even if he didn't (and he probably wouldn't risk the Light Ones to an unknown situation like this one, Grodin decided) he'd at least bring more firepower than what they had now – and hopefully would be able to think of something better to do than just hide in a couple of rooms and wait for more back up to show up.

"They'll show up," Grodin said.

"We just have," came a voice from the doorway.

Grodin and Kavanaugh both jumped, terrified. A full couple of days of being on the run in the middle of what had once been your friends was enough to set anyone on edge, and the two men were far from used to being so uptight all the time. Kavanaugh dropped the clipboard he'd been holding with a loud crash, and Grodin's hand went to the zat he'd slung around his slim waist – far too late to do any good against anyone.

Luckily the person at the door wasn't just anyone.

"Colonel Sheppard!"

Grodin jumped to his feet, his heart still racing, but his smile filled with relief.

"Are we glad to see you," Kavanaugh said – actually _meaning_ it, too.

"We're here, too," Rodney McKay said, stepping into the doorway as well. Behind him was Aiden Ford, but the room wasn't really all that big so he didn't join Sheppard when he entered. Instead, he turned and watched the deserted corridor around them – although they hadn't seen anyone for a while.

Sheppard gave McKay a look that plainly told him to be quiet and then turned to Grodin again.

"I assume you're the ones who sent the message?"

Grodin nodded.

"_Zelenka_ actually made the-"

"Look, we can hand out credit later," Kavanaugh said, interrupting. "But you need to know that we're in some _serious_ trouble here, Colonel. There's-"

"What's going on?" McKay interrupted just as easily as Kavanaugh had. He, of course, knew he was the brightest person on the planet – and probably any other planet as well – so he didn't feel at all guilty about interrupting.

Kavanaugh flashed him an annoyed look, but it was Grodin who spoke up.

"It has to be a foothold situation, Colonel," he said. "I don't know what else it could be. Something-"

"Or _someone_," Kavanaugh added.

"Or someone," Grodin corrected. "Has definitely gotten control of Doctor Weir and the others…"

"And the Jaffa?"

Grodin shook his head.

"They didn't even make it to the bridge, Colonel. Whatever it was, it neutralized the Jaffa almost immediately."

"Did _you_ bring any?" Kavanaugh asked, curiously. "Because if you did, we can compare what happened to the ones here and see if whatever it was will happen to them, too…"

Sheppard scowled, knowing that Kavanaugh was lucky that Colonel Mitchell wasn't there just then to hear that particular statement. He was treating the Jaffa like some kind of science project and Mitchell wouldn't have appreciated that – and wouldn't have bothered to try and hide her annoyance.

"We brought plenty," came yet another new voice. "And they're all down."

Sheppard turned to the doorway, not startled by Mitchell's sudden appearance.

"What took you so long?"

"_We_ had the longer walk."

"You lost your Jaffa, too?"

She nodded, her gaze suddenly dark.

"We almost lost _her_, too," Ronon said. "She went down when the others did."

Grodin looked over at her, relieved to see her safe. He'd been worried that if Mitchell had come to Atlantis she'd face the same fate that her Jaffa had – and he _liked_ Mitchell.

"You beat it?"

"Beat what?"

"Whatever it is…"

Melony shrugged.

"We're not sure _what_ it was," she said, and they knew she meant her and Talon. "But it tried to do something to us – to Talon, actually."

"Like what?" Sheppard asked.

"Beats me."

Grodin cleared his throat.

"Doctor Beckett was going to try and make it to the Jaffa quarters to get some samples and see if he could figure out what's going on with them. I think he was hoping you'd come," he added, hoping Mitchell wouldn't be annoyed at the subtle reference to their relationship – it wasn't a big secret, after all. "But he was worried that you might be hurt, too…"

She smiled slightly, relieved. She hadn't wanted to worry about Carson, but she couldn't get him completely out of her mind. Now she knew he was safe, at least. Or that he had been, anyways.

"We need to find him, then."

"He's supposed to return to Auxiliary Control, but I don't-"

"Then that's where we need to go," Mitchell interrupted. "Let's go."

She turned and headed for the end of the corridor, back the way they'd come, and the others started to follow. Except Rodney, who watched her go with a frown.

"_More walking_??"


	16. 16

"Maybe we should wait and find out what's going on before we start gallivanting all over the city…" McKay said when he finally managed to jog up to catch up to Mitchell, who had fallen back to take the rear guard with Ronon, while Sheppard and Ford took the lead. Between them, guarded on one flank by Duck, were Grodin and Kavanaugh, who were more than happy to turn over the sneaking around duties to those who were much more capable and qualified. 

Mitchell shook her head.

"I'd rather find out from everyone all at once what's going on. That way we have all the facts in front of us."

"And what if it's a trap?" he whispered, looking over at Grodin and Kavanaugh. "We don't know that they're not leading us right into the clutches of whatever it is that has the others."

She shrugged.

"I thought about that. But it doesn't really matter. We need to know what's going on."

"Even if it means running into an ambush?"

"It's only an ambush if it takes us by surprise," Ronon reminded him.

McKay rolled his eyes.

"Whatever it is, it's taken over the entire city. I don't think they're going to have much trouble with the six of us."

"Relax, Rodney," Melony told him. "I don't think it's a trap."

"Oh, and why not?" McKay asked, sarcastically. "Because they said they'll take you to _Carson_? If _I_ wanted to trap you, he's definitely the bait _I'd_ use."

She scowled, but before she could say anything, it was Ronon who spoke up.

"If they're that formidable then they wouldn't need to ambush us in the first place," he reminded the astrophysicist. "They'd have just been waiting for us at the closet, and taken care of us then."

McKay started to retort, but Ronon's hard expression dared him to say something on the contrary, and McKay didn't have the courage to challenge him. Melony was just as glad that he didn't say anything, because she had to admit that he did have a point – although she was inclined to agree with Ronon on this one.

_If they wanted us, they could have detected us on arrival_, Talon told her.

We were cloaked.

_Between them, Zelenka and Grodin are intelligent enough to have figured out a way to have the city's defenses search for a cloaked Jumper, Hot Shot. They were smart enough to figure out that we were coming and how to contact us, after all_

Which was, of course, true.

Ahead of them Sheppard raised his hand as he came to a stop, listening carefully at the end of the corridor. The rest of them stopped as well, and Melony turned her attention from the internal conversation she was having to the problem that was more at hand. The Auxiliary Control room was well below the main level of the city, and it was a good distance from where they were – especially since they didn't really dare use any of the lifts and perhaps broadcast their presence to anyone else who might be looking for them.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Have we heard anything else?"

Lorne shook his head, looking over at Weir as she walked into the control room.

"No, Ma'am."

"Have we managed to find Zelenka and Peter?"

Again he shook his head.

"Not yet, but we will."

"What about Carson?"

"Not yet. All told there are about thirty-five people in the city unaccounted for, and we're pretty sure they're just hiding out, scared."

Weir frowned, looking at the map of the city that was in front of her.

"I want them found, Major. They're _dangerous_."

"We're working on it, Ma'am."

"Take care of it personally."

He nodded and got to his feet.

OOOOOOOOOO

"I hear something…"

Carson Beckett froze, looking back at Shea, who was standing with their two Marines. Both of them were carrying zats instead of their usual sidearms – unwilling, as Carson had been to take out any of their people in any permanent solution – and both were looking back the way they'd come.

He was as quiet as he could be, but he didn't hear anything. Luckily, the Marines knew what they were listening for, even if he didn't, and one of them turned and beckoned for them to keep going the way they'd been headed. Carson frowned, but did what he'd been told, with Shea right behind him.

A moment later there was the deafening sound of gunfire.

"_Go_!" The Marine yelled, pushing them ahead of him as the other one guarded their escape. Carson looked back long enough to see the other marine firing his zat at someone, then ducking as bullets struck the walls all around him, miraculously missing him somehow and took off at a run down the corridor.

Behind them were more shots, more sounds of a zat discharging, and a moment later their other Marine caught up with them.

"We need to get out of the area," the man said, panting – which Carson was sure had a lot more to do with having just been in the middle of a gunfight and not because of the short sprint. "They know we're here, now, and they're going to swarm the place."

"And they're not trying to capture," Shea said.

"No. Not at all."

"Come on."

They all turned and hurried off, each of them tense and scared, and all of them trying to hide it to keep the others from being afraid, too.


	17. 17

The small group that was hiding in the auxiliary control room jumped with surprise and no small amount of fear when the door suddenly opened. There were five marines in the room, and all of them had weapons out – three zats and two pistols – facing the door while the scientists and other civilians dodged behind any kind of cover they could find.

"Stand down!" Sheppard yelled, holding his own zat out so they wouldn't mistake any move he made as aggressive.

It took a moment, of course, and one zat accidentally went off, but the guy holding it had realized at the last moment who he'd been aiming at and had jerked his hand desperately to avoid actually shooting Ronon, who dodged the wayward bolt at the same time.

"Colonel!"

Sheppard gave them a wry smile, reaching down to help one of the women to her feet.

"Where's Beckett?"

"He's not back yet," Zelenka answered, nodding a hello to Grodin when he moved into the room around Mitchell. His gaze held on Melony as he continued. "We haven't heard anything from his team since they left."

"How long ago was it?" Mitchell asked.

"Hours."

Ronon looked at her as well.

"We could go look for him. They might be in trouble."

"If they were captured, they probably told the others where to find us," Kavanaugh said, also moving into the room. "We need to get out of-"

"We didn't get captured," came a very distinctive voice from behind them. Melony turned and saw a grinning Ford standing beside a very messed up looking Carson Beckett, his face pale but obviously relieved. "Although it was a close thing."

"More than once," added another voice – this one belonging to one of the marines that had accompanied Beckett and the doctors.

Sheppard and the others moved out of the doorway, making room for Beckett and his group. Waving Ford and Duck to remain at the entrance and guard their conversation, Sheppard turned to Carson.

"You guys okay?"

"Aye. But we were _seen_."

"Lose anyone?" Sheppard asked the marine who'd spoken up before.

"No, sir. They're all here."

"Good. Then this room isn't compromised. Hopefully."

They couldn't risk having someone come in on them, after all.

"What did you find out, Carson?" Melony asked, telling him with that question that they already were up to speed on what was going on and what his mission had been. "Anything?"

He nodded.

"It's odd, though – and we don't have complete results on everything."

"What do you have so far?" Sheppard asked.

"The Jaffa aren't _dead_," Carson said, looking at Melony. "How do _you_ feel?"

She understood the reason for the question immediately, of course. After all, whatever would influence the Jaffa should be working on her as well.

"Fine."

_But we weren't right off the bat_, Talon reminded her with a quick mental snapshot of what had happened to them at the same time they lost their Jaffa.

"But something _did_ happen," Ronon reminded her at the same time.

"What?" Carson asked.

"We no more than walked into the city walls when Talon was… attacked for want of a better word… It knocked him – and me – out, but then it passed."

"But we lost the Jaffa at the same time," Ronon said. "And they didn't come around."

"We lost ours, too," Sheppard added. "The minute we entered the city."

Beckett looked at Mitchell carefully, as though trying to figure out just how healthy she actually was.

"But you're all right now, are you?"

She nodded.

"You know what it was?"

"Aye. At least, I might."

"We think it's a parasite…" Shea answered when Carson continued to dither.

Sheppard frowned.

"A _parasite_?"

"Yes."

"But the Jaffa are immune to illnesses," Rodney said, speaking up for the first time. "A parasite wouldn't have any affect on them."

"I don't know what else it could be, Rodney," Beckett said. "It's certainly not a virus or-"

"What about some kind of alien bug?" Sheppard asked. "A foothold situation?"

"Something's got to be controlling the others," Grodin said. "Elizabeth certainly isn't acting like her normal self, and neither are the-"

"It's not an _alien_," Carson interrupted. "It can't be _sentient_, anyways. It's not acting like it is."

"But it-"

"It _can't_ be a parasite, Carson," Melony agreed. "Rodney's right; the Jaffa are immune to parasites and other viruses."

"The Jaffa may be," he acknowledged. "But the _symbiotes_ aren't. At least, judging by the fact that _you're_ still standing, the _juvenile_ Goa'uld are susceptible to whatever the organism is. Apparently Talon is immune."

_Somewhat_

"So what does this parasite do to _people_, then?" Sheppard asked. "Not knock them out, obviously."

Beckett shook his head.

"I'm not certain yet. I took a sample from the marine who was guarding the Jaffa barracks, but the results aren't in, yet."

"How long until they are?" Melony asked.

"I'm not certain. An hour. Maybe more?"

"Then-"

"Someone's coming!" Ford hissed to them from the doorway. "Everyone _move_!"


	18. 18

They moved instantly. Sheppard and the military trained people all grabbing up weapons, and the scientist civilians all snatching the equipment that they'd need as they rushed to the exit. Sheppard motioned for them to divide into two groups, and pushed Ford ahead of him as he headed toward the door.

"Where do you want to meet?" Ronan asked, as Mitchell took hold of Carson by the back of his shirt to keep him from stumbling when he was overbalanced by the three laptops he'd grabbed.

"Just try not to get caught!" Sheppard told him.

They couldn't risk telling each other where they were going to end up – not if one group were captured – but since Rodney was running down the corridor after Ford, and Grodin and Zelenka were packing Carson's equipment and following after Duck, who had started to lead the way down the opposite corridor, they'd be able to figure out something.

Not to mention, Sheppard wasn't _completely_ positive where he was going to end up anyways.

The group split fairly evenly, many of the scientists following Sheppard simply because he was the one they'd known the longest. The military personnel tried to split themselves between the two groups evenly, but they didn't have a lot of time to discuss it, and most ended up going after Mitchell simply because Beckett was going that direction and they figured he was the best hope of figuring out what the hell was going on and how to fix things.

Which meant he needed protection.

"There's one!"

A series of shots deafened them all, and Melony shoved Carson roughly to the floor. Ronon's big weapon fired three times, and there were three muffled thuds as bodies hit the floor of the corridor.

"Got 'em," Ronon said, unnecessarily, but he didn't holster the gun.

"You okay?" Melony asked, helping a ruffled Carson to his feet.

"Aye."

He couldn't complain about the rough treatment – she'd been looking out for him, after all – but he didn't like being flung around, and he'd banged his knee painfully when he'd hit the floor.

"Come on."

Ronon looked at her questioningly, and she nodded and took the lead, while he and Duck fell back to guard the rear and three other marines helped Grodin, Zelenka and Carson carry the equipment they'd grabbed.

"Where's Shea?" Carson asked, looking around.

"She must have gone with the others," one of the marines told him, shrugging. He wasn't completely sure who Shea was – he didn't know everyone in the infirmary, after all – and they definitely didn't have time to go check.

They thundered down the corridor at a full run, equipment banging against their hips and thighs and the sudden sounds of shots being fired from behind them causing all of them to hesitate.

"Where are they?" Melony asked Carson and the others when they stopped to give the guys carrying the equipment a chance to catch their breaths – and to make sure that there wasn't anyone coming at them form the opposite direction.

Beckett gave her a baffled look, but Grodin understood what she was asking.

"They're almost everywhere," he replied. "And it's only our people – as nearly as we can tell. No aliens, or alien life forms anywhere in the city."

"You're serious?" Duck asked, surprised, even though their own scans hadn't been able to find any signs of a foothold situation, either.

Grodin nodded.

"Major Lorne's away team returned from a simple check of C-100 and things started going crazy after that. Elizabeth and most of the staff that had been in on Major Lorne's debriefing started acting strangely…"

"Strangely how?" Ronon asked.

"Like they didn't trust anyone," Zelenka said, looking around nervously. "Also, Elizabeth began giving orders that eventually isolated Atlantis from the rest of the Stargate network."

"We have two teams stranded offworld because Elizabeth said she couldn't trust them." Grodin added.

Melony frowned, but the middle of a corridor where there was the possibility that a lot of people hunting for them – heavily armed people at that – was not the place for this conversation. It'd have to wait.

"Is the infirmary under their control?"

"Everything's under their control," Grodin answered. "Weir has as many access codes as anyone – except Sheppard. But there aren't enough of them to guard everywhere, and they're more concerned with logistical areas like the control room and recently, the Jumper bay. The infirmary might be okay."

"We need to go there," Carson said. "I need to check my results from the other blood samples I took."

Melony nodded.

"Let's go, then."

OOOOOOOOOO

"Move!"

Sheppard didn't have time to have any kind of conversation in the corridors. For that matter, he didn't have time to do anything more than herd his charges up the corridor, putting himself between the scientists and the men chasing them and hoping that McKay and Ford could find someplace safe to hide them.

Gunshots sounded from behind him, making him turn automatically to see where his pursuers were. A flash of a uniform was all he saw as he rounded a corner, but obviously they'd seen his as well.

"They're up there!"

It was Lorne's voice.

"Damn it…"

He moved again, just in time. Bullets hit the wall above him just as the sound of shots rang through the hallway. He ducked, instinctively, even though only pieces of the wall rained down on him, and hurried to get out of the line of sight, crashing into McKay, who had rushed back to join him, zat out and face pale and frightened.

"Are you okay?"

"_Go_!"

It was nice of him – and very brave of him – to come back, and Sheppard didn't want him to be repaid for that courage with a stray bullet. He pushed McKay ahead of him, heard another round of gunfire – and felt his right leg kick out from underneath him as pain lanced through his entire right side.

He tumbled, unable to keep himself upright, and McKay stopped and reached back for him even as shouts of triumph echoed through the corridor.

"Go!" John shouted to McKay.

"But-"

"Go!" He shoved him for good measure. McKay was too important just then to be captured – or killed. "Get out of here!"

Indecision warred on McKay's face, and if he wasn't hurting so much, Sheppard would have felt bad for him.

_"McKay!"_

It was Lorne's voice, and they both turned to see the Major stalking down the corridor with a 3-man patrol right behind him.

"Rodney, get out of here…" Sheppard repeated, staggering to his feet but knowing there was no way he was going to be able to run. He turned his back on Lorne and pushed McKay again, and this time the astrophysicist moved, realizing the same thing Sheppard had and deciding that he'd be more help figuring out what was going on and helping with a rescue than trying to take on the group himself and being captured as well.

"Stop!"

Lorne fired two rounds into the ceiling, but while he did flinch, McKay didn't slow down. Sheppard turned back, his zat in his hand now, and fired, striking one of the others and causing the rest to dive out of the way. Lorne shot twice more on his way to cover and John felt the slug slam into his chest, knocking him back to the floor.

This time, he couldn't get up.


	19. 19

Numb with shock at seeing Sheppard go down so quickly and hard, Rodney didn't realize right away that he had absolutely no idea where he was going until he finally came to a stop, panting heavily and leaning against a wall as he listened hard for any sign of pursuit. Only then did he realize that he didn't know which way Ford and the others had gone – it was a very real possibility that he'd ran the complete opposite direct that Ford had taken the others.

Trying to squelch the gasping wheezes that would surely give his position away if Lorne and his men were anywhere near by, Rodney looked around anxiously, getting his bearings. He was in one of the corridors that held some Ancients labs, but ones that he and the other scientists hadn't really had much chance to explore. They'd simply checked to see if there were any interesting devices, or possible weapons, and had left them be for the time being. It was a big city, after all, and they couldn't check everything all at once. Especially with all the other things they had going on at the same time.

"What now?" he asked himself, panicked. "Where do I-"

_"McKay!"_

It was only a hissed whisper, but one that made him nearly jump out of his skin – and came very close to making him need a clean pair of underwear. His breath – which he'd been having trouble catching – was now caught firmly in his throat, warring with his heart for occupancy there, and he almost bolted before he realized that the whisper wasn't Lorne.

It was Ford. The Lieutenant was peeking around a corner, showing as little of himself as necessary and holding a zat in ready – just in case. He gestured for McKay to join him, and Rodney nodded, taking only a moment to make sure his knees weren't going to buckle under him.

"Where's the Colonel?" Ford asked as Rodney rounded the corner and saw that most of the others were waiting in a small huddle on the far end of the corridor.

"They got him. I mean, I hope they got him, because otherwise he's dead and I-"

"What happened?"

Ford didn't have any trouble recognizing that McKay was very close to a panic attack. The man's voice always seemed to go several octaves higher when he was stressed – and this was as bad as he'd ever seen him.

"They _shot_ him," McKay told him, his voice stressed and going even worse as he spoke. "I tried to go back for him, but he told me to leave him. I _tried_ not to go, I _tried_ to help him, but he-"

"Did they take him somewhere?"

"I don't know. He told me to run and I did."

Ford nodded, feeling sick. Of course Sheppard would tell him to run. McKay was their best hope when it came to retaking the city – simply because he knew more about the city than _anyone_ – including Weir, Lorne and all the others combined, probably. Sheppard knew that. There was no way the Colonel would have allowed McKay to risk that hope simply to save him.

McKay bit his lower lip, looking back the way he'd run.

"I heard another shot… but I don't know-"

"For now we'll assume he's _alive_, okay?" Ford interrupted. He didn't want to think about the alternative.

The astrophysicist nodded, visibly pulling himself together.

"Where do we go from here?"

"We need to find Mitchell and the others. Doctor Beckett is the best chance we have for figuring out what's going on with Weir and them, and we need to get back with them so we can help."

_Especially_ if they actually figured it out.

"Where?" McKay repeated, causing Ford to frown. He wasn't exactly used to being the one to make the life and death decisions after all.

With Sheppard gone, though, he was the next choice – and he wasn't going to fail if he could help it.

Ford gestured for McKay to follow him, and they went to rejoin the group.

OOOOOOOOOOO

They didn't make it far before they realized that they were the center of what was getting to be a very serious manhunt. They heard more gunfire off in the direction Sheppard had gone, but Mitchell and her group didn't have time to do more than be worried about them. People – armed people – were running down corridors in small groups, obviously searching for them.

She finally herded her small group into a little unused room and ducked with them behind a table to let them catch their breath – and to try and come up with a new strategy.

_We've got to lose these guys, Hot Shot_, Talon told her. _We can't lead them into the infirmary or they might figure out what we're doing and take steps_

Melony nodded, checking Carson almost instinctively to make sure he wasn't more than just winded before looking over at Grodin and Zelenka.

"Can they track us from the control room?"

"You mean with scanners?" Grodin asked, panting. He was in pretty good shape, yes, but he wasn't used to being chased by people with guns.

"Yeah. Can they see us?"

He shook his head.

"Only that there are life forms. They can't track us individually."

"Any way we can block the scanners so they can't?"

He hesitated, but then shook his head again.

"Not from here."

"We could if we got to a console," Zelenka added. "But it might not be the solution you think it is."

"Why?" Ronon asked.

"Because if we do it wrong, we could actually be assisting them to locate us."

Now Melony was confused, too.

"How?"

"By leaving a blank spot," Grodin replied. "If they _don't_ see anyone, that'll be more suspicious than if they do."

"They'll know exactly where we are…"

"Especially if they brought up enough people to saturate the area," Grodin agreed. "Elizabeth isn't stupid; she might think of it."

Mitchell nodded, looking over at Ronon.

"We need to split up, then. A big group is just as glaringly obvious as no one would be."

"What do you want to do?"

"The groups we've been dodging are no more than four people. You take Carson, Grodin and Zelenka and get to the infirmary. The rest of us will run interference for you and keep the others away so they can work."

"By letting them _chase_ you??" Carson asked, shaking his head. "That's-"

"Not a good idea," Ronon interrupted. "_You_ should escort them to the infirmary, and I'll go with the others."

Mitchell frowned.

"It's my responsibility."

Ronon nodded his agreement.

"But if Beckett manages to bring around the _Jaffa_, they will only follow your orders. You should be with him."

And besides, Ronon didn't want to have the responsibility of guarding Beckett. Not knowing how much the doctor meant to Mitchell. He'd much rather be chased by everyone in the city carrying guns.

_It makes sense_, Talon told her.

Yeah.

Melony nodded her agreement.

"Try not to kill anyone, okay?"

He gave her a partial smile, relieved.

"Me?"


	20. 20

It hurt to be shot. It hurt even _more_ to be dragged through the corridors of Atlantis after being shot. And it was downright a pain in the ass to have the people doing the dragging be the people you yourself had trained.

John Sheppard wasn't really all that coherent. Around the pain from being shot – twice, as far as he could tell, although he wasn't positive – and the shock that was setting in, it was difficult for him to be completely aware of what was going on around him. But he was pretty sure they were heading toward the control room, and he knew from overheard conversations – one sided as they were – that Lorne's team wasn't the only team out searching for the others.

He couldn't do anything but hope that they could stay out of the way of those groups – and that McKay had managed to find the others and tell them that he was compromised.

OOOOOOOOO

"The lab's _that_ way…" Carson whispered.

Melony nodded, but didn't stop. She was watching every direction at once as they moved away from Ronan and the others, followed closely by Carson, Kavanaugh and Grodin. None of these could be any help to Ronan and the other military types and would only put them in danger, so they had joined the small group that was going to try to figure out what exactly was going on and how exactly to fix things.

"Where are we _going_?" Kavanaugh asked, obviously afraid, but perplexed as well. "The lab's-"

"If we go _directly_ to the infirmary, we're going to end up with everyone out there looking for us sitting in our laps," Mitchell interrupted, allowing them this one chance to know the plan before she ignored them all. She didn't have anywhere near enough military people with her and she wasn't going to keep stopping if she could avoid it. "So we're going to take a different route – just in case someone is able to track us – so they don't figure out where we're going."

Carson and Grodin both nodded. The reasoning seemed sound enough to them – and they definitely agreed with the idea of not being found. Kavanaugh looked like he was going to ask something else, but the distinctive sound of distant gunfire stopped him cold.

"Let's go," Melony ordered, motioning for them to move out. "And stay close to me."

It was a completely unnecessary order, because the three of them were all right behind her.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"Move!"

Ronon Dex didn't know the city as well as the others that were with him, but it didn't really matter. There were a lot of corridors and very few actual dead ends, and as long as they had a place to go the destination wasn't that big of a deal.

Gunshots followed them as he and the marines who were with him all thundered down the corridor, dodging around corners and hoping that none of the guys that were chasing them got off a lucky shot and managed to hit one of them.

"We're not going to be able to stay ahead of them for long," Duck said once they managed to find a place to stop. They could have dodged into a room at any time, but none of them wanted to be in any kind of potential trap, so they were sticking to the corridors only.

"We don't _need_ long," Ronon said. "Just enough time to get Mitchell's group to the infirmary."

"Why don't we just set some ambushes?" one of the marines asked. "We can take them out one group at a time…"

Duck looked at Ronon. _He_ hadn't actually even thought of that, but it seemed like a good idea – except for the fact that they would be risking a lot more injuries that way. The people looking for them were using real ammunition, and they weren't trying to just _catch_ them. They were using lethal force – whereas Duck and the others had absolutely no intention of firing on their own people if they could avoid it.

"What do you think?"

He wasn't actually in charge of them, but they all knew that he was just as skilled as any of them – and far more ruthless. And even more importantly, they respected him.

"We could try it. Someone will need to be bait."

Duck nodded. He'd already figured that out.

"I'll go."

OOOOOOOOO

McKay looked around the empty room, the others behind him.

"Oh, this is just _great_…"

Ford poked his head into the infirmary as well.

"They're not here?"

"No." Rodney's voice was a mixture of annoyance and concern – but _mostly_ annoyance.

"I can't believe we beat them here," Shea said, moving over to the main console that she and Carson had used to examine the sample of the blood taken from the Jaffa.

"They've probably been delayed," Ford replied, looking around the way they'd come, hopefully.

"They've probably been _captured_," Rodney said. "Or _worse_."

"We don't know that," Shea snapped.

"Oh? Well, they caught _Sheppard_, and he's a lot faster than Carson is, let me tell you."

"Relax, McKay," Ford told him. "They might have run into some troubles. But they'll be here."

"Or they might have gone to a different lab if they couldn't get to this one," one of the others suggested.

Shea shook her head.

"_This_ is the one we need… Carson would come here."

"Unless he's _dead_," McKay said.

"Stop that," Ford snapped. "If you can't be more positive, then just shut up."

"Well I'm really sorry that I can't be Mr. Optimistic," McKay told him. "It's just that seeing a very close friend gunned down right in front of me tends to make me just a little pessimistic about the chances that my _other_ friends might have, and-"

"If you're not quiet, you're going to get us all caught," came a familiar voice from the other side of the room.

The scientists froze, but all the military personnel brought up their weapons at the first sign that they weren't alone. Colonel Mitchell stepped out from behind a large piece of diagnostic equipment and held her hand slightly out from her sides until they all realized who they were seeing and lowered their guns.

"Colonel!"

"And others…" Carson said, walking out from where he'd been hiding as well.

Rodney sagged with relief, and a genuine smile lit up his entire expression.

"Thank God. When did you guys get here?"

"About three minutes before we heard you coming," Melony answered, crossing the room with Beckett and Kavanaugh behind her.

"What happened to Sheppard?" Carson asked.

"They got him," McKay told them, losing his smile now.

"You're sure?" Mitchell asked, even though she knew from his earlier outbreak that he'd witnessed it.

"I saw it," Rodney confirmed. "They… they just… _shot_ him."

"He was wearing a vest," Melony said. "He might just be a prisoner…"

"You don't really think so, though…"

No, she didn't. But she wasn't going to admit it. Luckily, Carson interrupted before she had a chance to answer.

"Let's figure out what's going on," he said, moving over to the equipment Shea was standing next to. "Then maybe we can get him back."


	21. 21

Elizabeth Weir was a fairly handsome woman, with dark hair and a pale complexion that normally John Sheppard would go for. The look she threw his direction when Lorne and his team dragged Sheppard into the control room, however, was ugly and definitely out of character.

"Colonel Sheppard," she said, her voice hard but definitely her own. Which ruled out some kind of Goa'uld takeover – which John hadn't really thought was the case anyways. "How kind of you to return home."

The men supporting him released him, and his leg – which had long before gone numb – simply wouldn't support his weight, causing him to drop to the floor. Which jolted his bruised chest and left him gasping. Weir didn't give him a chance to reply. Which was just as well, since he couldn't have at that moment, anyways.

"Where's Rodney?"

"Who?"

It was pretty much a whisper, but her expression darkened making it plain that she'd heard him just fine.

"Wrong answer, Colonel," she said, and kicked him, hard, right in the chest. And right where he'd been struck by the bullet McKay had seen drop him. It was agonizing, but he clamped down on the yelp, allowing only a grunt of pain to escape – and only because he _couldn't_ stop it. "Where's Rodney?"

"I left him back on the planet…"

This was even less audible than the last response, but again it was obvious she'd heard him. She kicked him again, and this time he had more trouble biting back the pain.

"I don't believe you, John…"

He rolled over, looking up at her and clutching his chest – grateful he was wearing his Kevlar vest. Otherwise he'd probably have passed out.

"Would I lie to you?"

Her eyes narrowed.

"Major Lorne…?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"I want to know where Doctor McKay is. Convince the Colonel here to tell us, will you?"

Lorne nodded.

"Yes, ma'am."

Well, crap.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Sergeant Pascal Sanchez was very good at evasion. Extremely good at it, really. Out of high school he'd joined the Marine Corp and after graduating from boot camp, he'd immediately applied for Force Recon training. This was an elite group, however, and there were far more applicants than there were spaces. Competition was fierce, and the bar was set almost impossibly high. Only the best were accepted. And Sanchez had proven from day one that he was as good – and better – than most.

They'd been given several missions in South America. He went because he was small, spoke Spanish fluently, and was an expert at guerilla tactics. So good, in fact, that he earned a promotion to squad leader – which also gave him another stripe – and a chance to _really_ show his stuff. He proved that he could hide from anyone, anywhere and with an uncanny ability to know someone was coming and duck out of sight. Which earned him a nickname that would pretty much follow him over the course of the next few years – and into the Stargate program.

And now here he was, he thought to himself as he watched a small group of heavily armed men head down the corridor towards the tiny alcove he had ducked into. In the middle of an alien city – which was at least temporarily home – hiding from his own people and getting ready to lure them into a trap.

A very good trap that had already worked twice. He'd get the patrol to follow him – and one of the guys in the last group had actually _shot_ at him – and lead them directly into the arms of Ronan and the others, who were quick to zat them all into unconsciousness and disarm them and tie them up so they couldn't report. Already they had eight men out, and another four on the way, as far as Duck was concerned.

He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then released it as he judged the men were close enough to see him but at an odd enough angle they – probably – wouldn't shoot at him. Then he broke cover and headed down the corridor at a carefully gauged trot.

And heard yelling from behind him that plainly said he'd been seen.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"What have you found out?"

"I _just_ started looking."

"What did the _results_ tell you?"

Carson Beckett scowled, and looked over at Melony for help.

She caught the look, and walked over.

"Rodney, what are you doing?"

McKay shook his head.

"Nothing. Just asking for an update."

"We've been looking at it for a grand total of _two minutes_," Shea said, not as patient with McKay as Carson was. She wasn't as used to him, after all. "We're not ready to give you an update."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Melony asked. She _did_ have a room filled with scientists, after all.

Beckett shook his head.

"Just keep Rodney away."

They were brilliant, but they weren't medical doctors and medical researchers – and that was what Carson needed just then. Shea was the only help he could use, and only because she knew what she was doing.

McKay frowned.

"Hey, I'll have you know that I-"

"Rodney," Mitchell interrupted. "Why don't you come over here and give me a hand?"

She led him over to where the others were standing – aside from Ford, who was setting up a perimeter guard with the few military types he had.

"What are you doing?" McKay asked.

The group was studying a panel, and Zelenka was tapping away at a control keyboard he'd attached to it.

"We're trying to tap into the control room," Grodin answered. "We think that's probably where they'll take Sheppard."

"If he's _alive_," McKay said.

"If he's alive," Melony said. "They'll probably take him there."

Grodin nodded his agreement.

"We're trying to rig something through the security cameras so we can see what's going on there. If nothing else, it'll tell us how far out of hand the situation has gotten…"

"We could go in through the Beta section of the Ancient mainframe," Rodney suggested, with the confidence that comes with knowing you're the smartest person in the room. "I doubt anyone would be checking it – I'm not even sure Elizabeth knows _how_ to get into that partition."

Zelenka nodded – as did Grodin, Kavanaugh _and_ Mitchell.

"That's what I'm doing."

"Oh."

Well… he was _still_ the smartest in the room.


	22. 22

_Author's note: FF isn't delivering chapter alerts to me, so I don't know if anyone's getting them or if it's just my own account. But I'll write anyways and hope you guys get this._

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

"How bad is it?"

Duck bit back a yelp as Ronon pulled him to his feet.

"It's fine. Did you get them all?"

Ronon wasn't fooled. The marine was leaving a trail of blood in his wake as he half-carried him towards the others. This last group they'd ambushed had been more than willing to use their guns – and had been fairly lucky with their shots. Sergeant Sanchez had been hit at least twice.

"Yeah. We got them."

He pulled the Sergeant into the same room the ambush team brought the captured Atlanteans into and forced him down onto a low-slung table. While the others tied up their now unconscious prisoners, Ronon checked out Sanchez, who insisted once more that he was fine. There was at least one bullet hole in his upper thigh, and Ronon was pretty sure another had managed to ricochet up under his vest somewhere, for there was blood coming from somewhere above the man's belly. They just didn't have the resources to take a look right there.

"How is he?" one of the other marines asked, coming over to take a look.

"I'm _fine_," Duck told them, annoyed.

"We'd better get him to the infirmary," Ronon said. "We're done here."

They'd captured five patrols, taking out twenty-three men – all of them alive, but now securely tied.

The marines nodded, well aware that they probably couldn't do much more anyways. Eventually, _someone_ was going to start missing the patrols, and would swarm the area they were in – which was why they were on the opposite end of the city from the infirmary.

"We'll make a litter," one said.

No one even mentioned leaving him behind. It hadn't crossed their minds.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

"Got it…"

Less than ten minutes had passed since the scientists had started working on gaining access to the bridge cams – something they hadn't been able to do before the arrival of Mitchell and the others simply because they didn't feel safe enough to attempt to do anything that might draw attention to them. Now they _still_ felt vulnerable, but no where near as much as before.

Melony wandered back over towards that side of the room from where she'd been discussing security with Ford.

"Did you find him?"

Rodney shook his head.

"No, but we have access to the bridge, now."

"Is he there?"

The view screen was positively tiny, and she couldn't see anything in it. Not with the others looking as well.

Kavanaugh shook his head, but it was Grodin who spoke up.

"We can't see him, but the scope of the cameras isn't to its full extent, yet. We're still working on adding audio."

"See if you can get _Weir's_ office, too," Melony said. "That'd come in handy."

Rodney smirked, and pushed a few panels on the device in his hand – which was hooked into the internal systems of the control panel.

"Already on it."

Instantly the scene on the tiny monitor changed, and the scientists all gasped. Melony pushed Kavanaugh out of the way and stepped closer to get a better look.

They'd found Colonel Sheppard.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Who's with you?"

Sheppard barely heard the question over the roaring in his ears. Lorne was an efficient interrogator, and Sheppard was at a definite disadvantage since he'd started out injured and weakened. However, he was as stubborn as anyone – and Lorne's interrogation hadn't proved to be a match for it. Not yet, anyways.

Bloodied and bruised, he simply stared at Lorne. Who scowled, and drew his hand back to deliver another stinging slap.

"_Who's with you!?"_

OOOOOOOOOOO

"What have they done to him?" Zelenka murmured, paling.

"They're interrogating him…" Melony said, her eyes glued to the screen as they watched Lorne strike Sheppard. Open-handed, as if the Major was aware that punching him might knock him unconscious.

"My God…" Rodney said, staring at the screen and looking sick. It was one thing to be chased by aliens, or other enemies, but another to see your friend being beaten by one of your own people. "What do we do?"

Mitchell forced herself to turn away, and she went across the room to where Shea and Carson were busily working.

"Any luck?"

She'd told herself she wasn't going to rush them, but she couldn't help it.

Beckett looked up, looking impatient – even though it was her.

"We're working on it. I want to check this again."

"I need _something_, Carson. They've got John."

He hesitated, looking harried and hassled and not at all patient.

"I _need_ to double check it, Colonel. It's too easy. We _have_ to be missing something."

He turned back to his work, leaving her fuming.

_He has a job to do, Hotshot_, Talon reminded her.

I know.

But she needed to go get Sheppard, and to do that she had to be freed up from guarding Carson. Which she couldn't do while he was still working on figuring out what was going on.

"What did he say?" Rodney asked, coming over as Melony walked away from Carson – unwilling to be close to him and tempted to say something that might tarnish their relationship.

"He's double checking something…"

"How long will that take?"

"I don't know."

"Sheppard doesn't have a lot of _time_, Colonel…"

She scowled, and it was Talon once more who reminded her to remain civil or not bother to speak at all. McKay was worried, that was all – and it wasn't his fault.

"I know, Rodney. But we can't leave here until we have a solution."

They couldn't leave their only medics unguarded – and they couldn't do anything without a cure, anyways. There weren't enough of them to take on all of the military personnel in Atlantis.

She walked back over to look in on the video screen once more, just in time to see Lorne hit Sheppard again.


	23. 23

They had to do something…

Mitchell looked at the screen again, watched Sheppard take yet another slap to the face, and thought she could feel the sting of the blow through the video feed. She could certainly see the effects of it and the ones that had preceded it. Sheppard was bleeding from numerous small cuts – probably caused by the ring Lorne was wearing – and looked stunned more than anything else.

"We have to do something!" Rodney said, forgetting their need to be quiet in his own concern for his friend.

Melony could understand completely. She was used to action, not standing around watching – and certainly not watching this kind of scene.

"You're right."

They _did_. Even if it meant-

"We've got it."

Carson had walked up to them without her noticing, Shea right behind him and looking extremely pleased. Melony whirled on him, as did the others.

"What is it?" she asked without preamble, as Ford came into the infirmary as well to listen in on things.

"It's a virus," Beckett said, looking relieved.

"A virus?"

He nodded, his hands in the pockets of his lab jacket.

"It appears-"

"It's not an _alien_?" Rodney asked, interrupting.

Carson frowned.

"No. It's-"

"Can a _virus _make people crazy?" Ford asked, looking at the monitor the others had been watching.

"It's probably some kind of alien life form _disguised_ as a virus ," McKay said, sticking to his original assessment.

"It's not," Beckett told him, annoyed at the constant interruptions. "It's a _virus _, Rodney. Like one that causes the common cold."

"Yeah? Well, when I get a cold I don't go around _shooting_ at my friends."

"I said it was _like_ a cold, I didn't say it _was_ a cold," Beckett snapped. "It's-"

"What can we do about it?" Melony asked, interrupting as well. She understood the frustrations on both sides – and was just as frustrated herself – but they didn't have time for arguing just then.

"You can't cure a cold," Kavanaugh said.

"I said it was _like_ one," Carson repeated. "It's different, too, though. Mainly because it affects the brain, not the lungs."

"It attacks the frontal lobe," Shea told them. "Specifically the anterior prefrontal cortex."

Melony looked at Carson.

"The portion of your brain that handles judgment, reasoning and that sort of thing," he said, translating for her. "Obviously it's affecting Elizabeth and the others in different ways – since she's become irrational and suspicious, and Lorne and some of the others are-"

"Beating the crap out of their commanding officer…" Rodney finished.

Carson nodded.

"Exactly."

"What about the _Jaffa_?" Melony asked.

"They're not affected at all. It's their symbiotes the bacterium went after – and only juvenile symbiotes as far as I can tell, since Talon's not affected. It must affect their nervous systems, causing them to shut down – along with their hosts. Luckily."

"Why luckily?" Grodin asked. "We could have _really_ used their help getting things back under control…"

"Except that we'd have no reason to believe the Jaffa wouldn't be affected the same way the humans were," Beckett said. "And I'd much rather face the military personnel here than try to hide from our contingent of Jaffa."

Good point.

"So what can we do to turn this around?" Melony asked. "Is there an antidote?"

"Not exactly an antidote," Carson said. "More of an antigen. We tested blood samples from both myself and-"

There was a sudden commotion at the door, and Ford and Melony both brought their weapons up reflexively, automatically assuming the worst; that they'd been discovered and a group of military types had managed to break through their meager perimeter.

The first person they saw, however, was Ronon Dex, who was mostly carrying Sergeant Sanchez. Who was bleeding.

"Shit."

Mitchell holstered her zat and headed over, following Carson who had bolted for the door immediately.

"What happened?" Beckett asked, gesturing for Ronon to help Duck get onto an examination table. He was already starting to unbuckle the Kevlar vest the sergeant was wearing.

"We were running ambushes and he was shot," Ronon replied, stepping back to allow Carson room to work on his patient.

"How'd you do?" Mitchell asked, choking down her concern for Duck and distracting that with logistics. The sergeant was pale and looked to be in a lot of pain, but Carson was the best there was.

"We took down twenty-three."

"Killed?"

Ronon shook his head.

"All alive. Any luck on figuring out what's causing it all?"

Mitchell nodded, stepping back from the table as well to keep out of Carson's way.

"Some kind of virus."

"Probably picked up by one of the SG teams returning from a mission and not getting properly checked out once they were back," Rodney said.

"Or it could have just come back in the air that was around them," Melony said, knowing that Carson and his teams did the best they could – which was usually enough. "We don't know."

"Is there a way to deal with it?"

"We need to immobilize everyone who is infected," Carson said, looking up from Duck's bloody chest. "Knock them all out and deal with it while their brains are as inactive as possible."

"How are we supposed to do _that_?" Rodney asked.

"That's your problem," Beckett said, turning his full attention back to the man on the table. "But when you get it done, we can take care of the bug."

Ronon looked at Melony.

"Your zats will only stun someone for a short length of time…"

Already some of the men they'd captured would be coming around. They'd have headaches and were still tied up, but they were conscious.

Mitchell nodded.

"We need something a bit longer-termed."

"Like what?" Rodney asked.

"We considered sending some kind of knock out gas through the ventilation systems," Grodin said, speaking up. "There are a couple we have that probably would do the job."

"Why didn't you?" McKay asked.

"Because while it would reach the majority of the city, the control room is protected against such an attack, and we didn't feel we could deal with the resulting detection."

Melony frowned.

"We can get everyone else, though?"

"Probably," Zelenka said, nodding.

"But they're going to know immediately what's going on," Grodin said. "And Elizabeth will most likely freeze the ventilation controls from the central control room."

"Unless we had someone in the _auxiliary_ control room who was smart enough to keep her from doing that…" Melony said, looking at Rodney. "Can you do it?"

He nodded.

"Easily. I could also run the program that sent out the knock out gas from there."

"Need help?"

"Zelenka or Grodin."

Mitchell looked at both of those mentioned, and they both nodded their willingness to volunteer.

"But that still leaves the people in the _control room_," Kavanaugh said. "There's probably twenty or so – and most of them are military."

Which meant armed.

"We'll deal with that," Melony said, looking at Ford, Ronon and the marines they still had.

They all nodded.


	24. 24

It wasn't quite that easy, of course. There were a lot of things they still had to decide. Who would escort McKay, Grodin and Zelenka to the auxiliary control room? What kind of gas would be used to knock out the population of the city? How did they keep it from knocking out Beckett and Shea, who were already in the process of starting to operate on Duck – with Kavanaugh playing the very reluctant role of nurse and helping them.

"We could seal the infirmary…" Rodney suggested when that particular question came up. "It's designed to be a clean room in case of epidemic outbreaks – which were, of course, rare."

"Can you do that from the auxiliary control room?" Melony asked. "We don't want to make the move to quickly and alert Weir and the others that something's going on until it's too late for them to act on it."

Especially since there would be a minimum amount of protection available for them, and their best bet was to stay off the radar if they could.

Rodney nodded.

"Not a problem."

Melony looked at Grodin and Zelenka, who nodded their agreement with Rodney's assessment. Not that she didn't trust McKay, but she hated the thought of leaving Carson without much help anyways, and definitely didn't want anything happening to him while he was working on Sanchez.

"Okay." She said, making her own decisions. "Ronon, Ford, Murphy – you're with me going after the control room." She pointed at three of the four remaining Marines. "You guys are escorts for McKay and his group. It's imperative you get them to the auxiliary control room safely – but as quickly as you can." She looked at the single remaining marine and the rest of the scientists. "You guys stay here. First sign that something didn't go as planned, and I want you all on a Jumper out of here. Beckett can fly it."

Rodney made a pained face.

"Not very well…"

"Then we'd better make sure nothing goes wrong."

They all nodded.

Ford had been rummaging through one of the many drawers and cubby spaces in the main infirmary, and drew out a large bundle of respirators, which he handed around.

"These'll keep us from getting knocked out with the others…"

"How are you going to know when we start pumping the gas?" Grodin asked. "You'll want to time your assault on the control room to coincide with that…"

_Like we needed him to tell us that_? Talon murmured.

It's a good observation, Melony replied.

"We'll set our watches…" she said aloud. "How long will it take you to get to the auxiliary control room and get things set up?"

Zelenka shrugged.

"Half an hour."

McKay looked back at the screen, where Sheppard had slumped in his chair, clearly unconscious.

"Twenty minutes."

Melony nodded. It would take them less than that to get to the control room, so they could be in position and be ready.

"No way you could give us a signal that you're ready?" Ford asked. He didn't like the idea of setting watches and hoping they'd be on time.

"Only if you wanted to alert Elizabeth and the others that something's coming. I'm not _certain_ she could alert the people she might have loose in the city in time for them to take measures to protect themselves – but it's not really a chance we want to take, is it?"

Ronon shook his head, and so did the others.

"No."

That would be disastrous.

Mitchell looked at her watch.

"Twenty minutes from…" and they all reached for their wrists. "_Now_."

Several soft beeps echoed through the room as the watches all synchronized, and Melony looked over to where Carson was, blood all over his gloved hands and some spattered on the front of his lab jacket. She wanted a chance to see how Duck was doing, and to tell Carson she'd see him soon, but there wasn't really time.

With an effort, she pulled her attention back to what was going on – and immediately focused on it, instead.

"Are we ready?"

Everyone nodded – although Grodin and Zelenka definitely looked nervous. Which only made sense, since they very rarely found themselves in such a situation. Missions weren't really their thing.

"Let's go."

And as a group, they left the infirmary – although they split up almost immediately.

OOOOOOOOOO

"What kind of opposition are we going to find?" Mitchell asked Ronon.

"Shouldn't be much," he replied, checking down a corridor before nodding to Ford that it was clear. Ford and Murphy – a Marine technical sergeant – were on point, while Mitchell and Ronon were rear guard. "We cleared out a few teams. But we didn't find any pattern in their movements."

"Weir's not military trained," Melony commented. "If she's just sending them out to look for our people, then she might not understand about checking in and pattern patrols…"

"Major Lorne would know."

"He's busy, though."

Good point. Although if Sheppard had lost consciousness, he might not be busy any longer. Another thing they'd have to watch for.

"Hopefully none of the teams you took out have come up missing yet."

With only four of them, they'd need every bit of surprise they could get.

OOOOOOOOOO

Elizabeth Weir turned as Major Lorne entered the main control room.

"Well?"

Lorne shook his head, nursing his bruised hand.

"He's not talking."

"Make him talk."

"I tried. He passed out."

"Wake him up and try harder, Major. I want to know where the others are."

"He might have come alone."

She gave him an incredulous look.

"You don't really believe that."

He shook his head.

"No."

It was just wishful thinking.

"Sheppard and the others are a danger to this city, Major. Find out who he brought with him. However you need to."

Lorne nodded.


	25. Chapter 25

It was a sign of just how few patrols were left out and about in the city that Mitchell's team didn't meet up with anyone on their way to the main control room. There was one close call; when Ford had stopped them all with a raised hand to alert them he saw something, but whatever it had been – and they simply assumed it was a patrol or someone out on patrol alone – they never saw the person or people, and they were very quickly near the corridor that led to the main entrance of the control room.

With a series of quick hand motions, Melony had her people set; She and Ford were going to head around to the other entrance, Ronon and Murphy were going to take this closest entrance. Between them, they figured they could catch the people in the control room in a crossfire of zats and canisters of knockout gasses, disabling them long enough for them to get things back under friendly control.

Ronon nodded, letting her know they were settled and would wait for their watches to go off, and Melony and Ford left silently, not daring to speak or make any unnecessary noise for fear of setting off the trap too soon and ruining everything.

OOOOOOOOOOO

It was a very nervous group that reached the auxiliary control room with less than five minutes to spare. Despite his need to get things going and rescue Sheppard, Rodney couldn't coax the others into anything faster than a cautious walk – and even that was stilted since they all kept hearing things that their hyper edgy minds were inventing and kept stopping to look around in a panic. Only the urgency of the situation and the constant hissed nagging of McKay kept them moving at all, and there was definitely a sigh of relief when they crossed the threshold of their objective.

While their marine escort kept watch with his weapon raised, the three scientists headed immediately to the control panels.

"Which kind of gas are we going to use?" Grodin asked as they took seats.

Since he'd been considering it the whole way to the control room, Rodney didn't hesitate.

"Compound D. It's non-lethal, odorless and should work faster than anything else we have."

"What about the Trizododone?" asked Zelenka. "It would keep them out longer – and give us time to search for everyone."

Plus there would be fewer side effects when people started waking up.

McKay frowned, looking at Grodin. He had been looking for the one that worked fastest, but Zelenka was right about the other gas lasting longer. Who knew how many people were running around loose in the city? They'd need time to go find them all. Obviously Grodin agreed with this, because he nodded, and McKay echoed it, reaching for the nearest keyboard.

"Okay, we'll go with the Trizododone."

That might even give them time to bring the Jaffa around first and get some extra help looking through the rest of the city.

Zelenka looked at his watch.

"Three minutes…"

"Plenty of time."

He was a genius after all.

"Don't forget your gas masks," Grodin reminded him, reaching for his own. After all, the auxiliary room wouldn't seal itself and they'd be exposed to the gas as it was released.

McKay reached for his hurriedly. Okay, even geniuses had small lapses from time to time.

"Are we ready?" he asked, reaching for the keypad once more.

The others nodded.

OOOOOOOOO

"I need that clamp!"

"What?"

Carson made an exasperated noise and reached around Kavanaugh to grab a surgical clamp from the kit that Shea had brought over. He showed it to the astrophysicist before using it on his patient.

"A _clamp_," he repeated, his attention back on Sanchez.

If not for the fact that he was fairly certain he was going to disgrace himself by puking his guts dry if he opened his mouth again, Kavanaugh would have complained. It wasn't like this was something he'd asked to do, after all – and he wasn't a medical doctor for a reason. He hated blood.

"Give me another clamp," Beckett ordered, not looking up from where he and Shea were starting to tie off injured arteries and veins.

Kavanaugh reached for a clamp identical to the one Beckett had just showed him and wordlessly handed it over.

There was a sudden hiss that made all of them jump as the infirmary suddenly sealed itself off, closing all outside vents and air supplies and kicking in all the air filters and oxygen producers that would keep them from suffocating during the process.

They all looked at each other, nervously, for just a moment.

"It's starting…" Kavanaugh said.

"Aye."

One of the monitors beeped, drawing his attention back to his patient, but Carson couldn't help the tiny stab of concern he suddenly felt for Melony.

OOOOOOOO

The soft beep seemed to echo through the deathly silent corridor, followed immediately by one from Ford's wrist as well. Through the clear screen of her gas mask – which Talon had been pretty certain she wouldn't really need, but Melony had insisted they wear just in case – she looked at Ford, who nodded. He was ready.

It was only their imagination, but they seemed to be able to hear the invisible gas that would now be permeating most of the city, and it was imperative that they gain control of the main control room before Weir and those others in the room figured out what was happening and tried to counter it.

"Go!"

The door recognized both of them, and opened as soon as they stepped in front of it. Unfortunately, the door wasn't the only one, and the Marine guarding the other side of it brought his machine gun up with remarkable reflexes.

"Doctor Wei-!"

Before he could finish – or fire a shot – Ford dropped him with a quick burst of zat fire. Two shots almost simultaneously. The marine dropped, stunned, and Melony turned toward the rest of the room, just in time to see the door on the opposite side of the ramp open and Ronon and Murphy come rushing through, weapons up and already firing.

"Colonel!"

Melony turned at the sound of Elizabeth's yell, had just enough time to be amazed and a little startled by the pure hatred she saw in Weir's eyes and expression, and felt Talon take over, jerking her around sending her diving towards the floor. Overhead came the sound of machine gun fire – followed immediately by the echoing report of Ronon's big stunner and a couple of zats.

With Talon still in command, Melony lunged to her feet, launching herself at Weir, who suddenly had a Beretta in her hand. A birthday present from Melony only a few weeks before – and one that Melony had taught her to use.

Momentum being what it was, however, there was no way to stop her lunge, and the gun went off once as she tackled Weir, both women tumbling to the ground in a heap.

OOOOOOOOOO

Ronon dodged behind a panel as he and Murphy took the brunt of the fire from those marines that had been in the control room. Expertly trained, they had reacted as quickly as Melony had expected them to, weapons up and firing indiscriminately and ducking behind their own protected spots to avoid the fire from the zats and Ronon.

The plan had been a good one, though, and it worked as well – and better – than Ronon could have anticipated. With a two-pronged attack – although Mitchell was now down – those in the control room didn't have any place to hide. They were brought down quickly and efficiently with as few shots as possible to avoid accidentally killing anyone with an extra shot.

A door on the side of the control room opened, and Lorne emerged, drawn to the sound of the gun battle with his Beretta in his hand. Ford dropped him instantly, and Ronon headed through the door, looking for more targets, but only finding Sheppard laying on the floor in a spreading pool of blood.


	26. 26

The bullet hit. There was no way it could possibly miss from the distance between Melony and Elizabeth. But even as it struck, Mitchell's momentum was carrying her into Weir, knocking them both to the floor. The impact sent the Beretta sliding across the room, and with Talon in control; Melony struck Elizabeth hard, knocking her unconscious.

She slumped to the floor, a fairly nasty welt already forming on her forehead.

You hit her pretty hard…

_She'll be fine_

Talon had centuries of experience with blows like that, after all. Weir would wake with a headache, but no loss of motor skills or memory.

Melony stood up, zat still out although the sounds of gunfire had stopped. Ford came rushing over with Murphy and the two of them caught her as she swayed.

"Colonel?"

"I'm all right, Lieutenant," she told him, pulling away. "Let's find Sheppard."

"He's in here," came Ronon's call from the other room, and the three of them hurried to join him.

Ronon was kneeling on the floor beside a very battered and bloodied John Sheppard, who was clearly unconscious – which was probably for the best. His face was a bruised, bloody mess and there was evidence of at least one gunshot wound, to judge by all the blood soaking one of his pant legs.

"Is he alive?" Mitchell asked, coming over and kneeling down as well, her own bloody hand reaching for Sheppard's neck to find a pulse.

Ronon nodded.

"Can we move him?"

_You'd better_, came Talon's reply. _He's lost a lot of blood_

Melony nodded her agreement, but the others hadn't heard the comment so they merely thought she was answering Ronon.

"Let's get him to the infirmary," she said, moving back so Ford and Ronon could heave Sheppard up, draping him over Ronon's powerful shoulders in a fireman carry. Sheppard didn't even grunt.

"You're hurt," Ronon said, noticing the splash of blood on the front of her uniform for the first time.

"Talon can handle it."

_Oh sure… Talon can handle it…_

Can't you?

_Well, yeah…_

She keyed her communications.

"Rodney?"

"McKay here… did you get him?"

She looked over just in time to see Ronon heading out the door, leaving the cleanup to the rest of them while he delivered Sheppard to the infirmary.

"Yeah, we got him."

There was a slight pause, which Mitchell knew was relief, and then it was Grodin's voice that came over the city's communications, his voice muffled by the gas mask he wore.

"Colonel, we can read life forms from here, but not individuals…"

"Then we'll track down our people and see about getting them into restraints while Beckett finds a cure."

"We don't have the manpower to do that," McKay protested.

"We can't bring in anyone else until we're sure there's no danger of them getting infected," Melony pointed out. "Have someone come up here and take over the control room, and the rest of us can meet at the infirmary and start collecting people."

She wanted a chance to check on John before they started.

_You'll need to get something to stop the bleeding, too_, Talon told her. He was already numbing her pain, and luckily the bullet wound wasn't very deep, so she wasn't going to be too hampered by the injury. Which was just as well, since they were going to need all available hands.

She turned off the radio before he could argue anymore – although he was almost definitely grumbling on his end – and looked over at Ford.

"I want you to guard the control room, Lieutenant. Just in case someone managed to slip past the gas."

Ford nodded, raising his weapon a little.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Murphy, you're with me."

Leaving the control room with its little army of slumped over scientists and military officers to Ford, she headed down to the infirmary to check on Sheppard and Duck.

OOOOOOOOO

When Ronon arrived at the infirmary, Beckett was just finishing up with Sergeant Sanchez. Carson and the others were all wearing gas masks, too, now, since Ford had called down to them to warn them about Sheppard's injuries and they absolutely had to unseal the infirmary to allow Ronon in with him.

"Bring him over here," Carson ordered, gesturing to a clean table with surgical equipment all around it.

As Ronon complied, the doctor was already assessing Sheppard's condition. He looked bad, but it might not be as terrible as it seemed. Rodney had mentioned that Sheppard had been shot twice, but as the clothing started coming off, Carson could only see one gunshot wound – and it was in the upper thigh. Bloody messy, but not life threatening as long as he hadn't lost too much blood. The lacerations on his face were nasty, too, and there would be considerable bruising by the time things had run their course, but bruises weren't life threatening, either. Usually.

"How did it go?" he asked as he started clearing away the blood to get a better look at the injuries on Sheppard's face.

Ronon shrugged.

"Better than I expected."

"No other injuries?"

"Mitchell took a bullet."

"What?"

"Weir shot her. She's okay, though. Said Talon could handle it."

"_Elizabeth_ shot her?" Carson echoed, amazed. Sure, he knew that they were all acting erratically, but it was inconceivable that Elizabeth would actually _shoot_ anyone.

"She's okay," Ronon repeated, assuming the doctor was worried about Mitchell. "Should be here any minute."

"What about Elizabeth?"

"We just left everyone where they were," came the answer – this time from Melony who had just arrived. "We'll go collect them as soon as everyone gets here – and we have some _gurneys_ to put them on since I don't feel like toting them all over the city."

"You _will_ have a cure?" Ronon asked pointedly.

Carson nodded, looking over at Melony even while he worked on Sheppard. It was easy to see where she'd been shot – lower side – but it was just as apparent that Talon had things well in hand (metaphorically speaking). She definitely wasn't in much pain.

"I'll start in on it as soon as I'm done here…"

"We'll keep everyone tied down until then," Melony told him. "Just to be on the safe side."

Which was fine with Beckett.


	27. 27

The infirmary wasn't big enough to hold everyone in Atlantis. Not when more than eighty percent of the population was now unconscious and absolutely had to be under supervision until further notice. And shackled in some manner.

The first people they brought in were those who'd been in the control room. It was important to clear that area out, and equally important to make sure that those who had the security clearances to do the most damage were someplace together where they could be watched until Beckett had the cure finished. Even more important if the gas wore off.

They didn't have to wear gas masks anymore, either, which made breathing easier on those who were out in teams collecting people. The gas was cleared out of the corridors and rooms of the city – although those who had been exposed to it were still out – and would be for several more hours. Hours that they used to wheel gurneys around the corridors of the city and gather up everyone who had simply dropped where they'd been standing (or sitting, or in one case taking a pee).

Those that didn't fit in the infirmary were put on cots in several of the rooms around the infirmary, with at least one wrist handcuffed to the cot itself, and the cot placed in a way that made it impossible for a person lying on the thing to move it.

Melony was in charge of positioning these people, since Talon had cautioned her that she shouldn't do too much lifting or moving around until he had her injury better taken care. As they were wheeled in – sometimes three or four on a single gurney to save time and trips – she assigned bed space or cot space to each, and personally applied the handcuffs or wrist restraints. That way she knew it was done properly. In between deliveries, she had a chance to keep an eye on Carson's progress with Sheppard, so she was right there when he finally put him into the bed they'd saved for him – right beside Duck, who was sleeping off his own exposure to the gas and was bandaged from collarbone to upper thigh.

"How's he doing?" she asked Carson as he reconnected an IV to Sheppard's hand.

"He'll be okay," Carson told her. "He lost a lot of blood, and he took quite a beating, but the gunshot wound didn't cause his leg any permanent damage, and the bruises will fade eventually."

"And Sergeant Sanchez?"

"A bit more serious, I'm afraid. The bullet ricocheted off his hip and went up under his vest, tearing through his intestines and finally lodging between two ribs. It did a fair amount of damage to his left lung, and it took a lot to get it out."

"No _permanent_ damage?"

"It's too early to tell. I managed to save the lung, but there's always a chance of infection – and he's going to be a very sore young man for quite a while."

"Better sore than dead…"

"Aye." He rubbed his face, tiredly, and sighed. "I'd better go help Shea work on the antigen."

"Have you figured anything out, yet?"

As much as she felt bad that he was tired – and she didn't feel all that great herself – she knew that they didn't have a lot of time for resting just then. Not with so much riding on him, especially.

"I've been giving it some thought, but I'll have to run some more tests. I think I'll try to bring the Jaffa around first."

"Why?"

"Because they went down so quickly. Whatever the virus did to the symbiotes, it didn't kill them, and I think they'll be in better shape than the humans – and easier to revive."

_Not to mention it wouldn't hurt to have a large contingent of Jaffa back on their feet so we have extra guards on the others_, Talon added.

Good point.

"Is there anything I can do?" she asked.

"_You_ can rest for a while and keep me from worrying," he replied, gesturing towards his quarters – which was the closest empty bed.

She frowned, ready to tell him that she didn't need to rest, and Talon stopped her.

_Just do what he wants, Hot Shot. You can use the rest, and Ford has everything in hand for now. If he's not worrying about you, he'll have less distractions_

It was obvious from the way Carson had crossed his arms over his chest that he was expecting resistance, and he actually looked surprised when she nodded.

"All right. Just wake me up if anything happens…"

He smiled.

"I will."

She turned and headed out of the infirmary, and Beckett checked once more on Sheppard and then on Duck, and then went back into the lab area. He had a lot to do, after all.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Ford looked down at the readout on the heads up display.

"How many more?"

"Thirty-five," Grodin answered, pointing to several life forms that were scattered throughout the one remaining section of Atlantis that they hadn't yet cleared.

"So many?"

"They might have been a group hiding out or something…" Zelenka said, looking over Grodin's shoulder as well. "We've already found several small groups who obviously weren't trying to kill anyone and weren't obeying Elizabeth's orders."

"As near as we can tell," Grodin clarified.

"They were holed up with stores of food…"

"Maybe they were immune to this thing, too," Ford said, shrugging. "You guys didn't all get it."

"Which makes you wonder what it was about us that made us immune…" Grodin replied.

Ford shrugged again, he didn't know, and he didn't care.

"Might have been the shampoo you used, who knows? It's a good thing you all didn't get it, though. It could have been a disaster."

"It almost became one anyways," Zelenka pointed out.

"True."

"How's Colonel Sheppard?" Grodin asked.

"He'll be okay. I'll go check on him when we take these last people in."

"I think Rodney's lurking in that general area…" Peter told him.

Ford smiled, and straightened his uniform – a sure sign that he was getting ready to get back to work.

"Good. I can use the extra help."

Thirty-five people were a lot, after all, and there was no reason he couldn't enlist McKay's help. Whether he offered it or not.


	28. 28

"Melony…?"

The soft whisper woke her far sooner than she was ready to be awake. Melony rolled over, away from the hand that was now resting on her shoulder. Pain shot through her lower abdomen at the motion, causing her to gasp as her breath caught in her lungs.

"Are you okay?"

She opened one eye, and saw Rodney crouched next to Carson's bed. His eyes were concerned, and there was a cup in one hand. And something smelled wonderful.

"Is that coffee?"

"Carson thought you might want some."

How well he knew her.

She reached for it, but McKay pulled it away before she could get it.

"Carson's ready to start reviving the Jaffa. He suggested you be there."

She scowled and sat up, reaching for the coffee once more and taking a grateful sip when he handed it over.

"Of course I want to be there. When?"

"As soon as you get up. Assuming you're up to it?"

"I'm up to it."

"You looked like you were in a lot of pain…"

"I'm fine."

She took another drink of her coffee, and got out of bed. Dressed when she fell asleep, she didn't figure she needed to even bother to change.

"Where is he?"

"You're _bleeding_."

He gestured to her bloodstained shirt.

"I _bled_. I'm fine, now."

But she better change. If Rodney was nagging her about her health, then Carson would be _smothering_ her – and she wanted to focus more on the Jaffa.

"How's Sheppard?"

"Still out."

"And Sanchez?"

"Him, too."

"How long have _I_ been out?"

"A few hours."

So long?

_You needed the rest, Hot Shot_

"Where's Carson?"

"In the Jaffa barracks."

"Let me change, and I'll be right there."

He nodded.

"I'll wait."

He prudently stepped outside and closed the door behind him. She didn't need his help changing, after all.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Beckett just happened to be looking that direction when Mitchell walked in the door, and he smiled, relieved, when she arrived looking more or less refreshed. She certainly didn't look like someone who'd been shot only a few hours before. A tribute to her symbiote, of course – although Carson knew that the sleep she'd gotten definitely helped.

She smiled as well, walking over with an empty coffee mug in her hand.

"How'd you sleep?" he asked.

"Soundly. You look exhausted, though."

Since he hadn't had much sleep since everything had started to happen, he didn't dispute it. Instead, he shrugged.

"I've had a lot to do. Like getting your Jaffa on their feet."

It was a clever comment, because it was intended to take her attention off him and his lack of sleep and put it on the Jaffa – and it worked like a charm.

"Can you do it?"

He nodded.

"We think so."

He held up a canister that looked about the size of a Coke can.

"It's an inhibitor, of sorts. Should work on this alien bug – at least in the symbiotes."

"But not in humans?"

He shook his head.

"No. But we're really close to that, too. In fact, as soon as we get the Jaffa up and about, we should have the first batch of human inhibitor ready to try."

"On who?"

"_My_ vote is Lorne," Rodney said, speaking up.

Carson shook his head.

"It won't hurt whoever we try it on. It'll just work or it won't."

"Or they'll pretend that it worked and try to kill us all over again…" Melony said.

Again, Beckett shook his head.

"We'll test them for the infection before we let them go – and this time we'll have the Jaffa covering us. I hope."

"Well, let's try this stuff on them first, then," Mitchell said, moving over to stand by the closest bed. "What do you do?"

"It's inhaled. We're going to put it in the ventilation system and pump it into the room. If it works, we'll put it into the entire city."

Since the Jaffa who had accompanied Mitchell and the rescue teams were in the infirmary – and other rooms around there – this seemed like a good idea to Melony, who nodded.

"So let's do it. Will it hurt Talon?"

_Good point_

Carson shook his head.

"Not at all."

He handed the canister to one of the technicians, who took it over to a wall panel and started tampering with it.

"How long will this take?" McKay asked, curiously.

"It should be fairly quick – once they start breathing it in."

The three of them stood to the side of the room, and watched as the air circulation in the room was increased long enough to get the inhibitor into the air supply, and then was slowed in order to allow it to settle enough to be breathed in.

_I don't feel any different…_ Talon told her.

Carson said you weren't going to be affected.

Talon started to say something, but a movement from the closest bed stopped him – and drew all their attention. The first of the Jaffa opened his eyes, and sat up quickly, looking around confused and immediately reaching for his weapon.

Beckett and McKay quickly stepped back.

"Now would be a good time to assure him all is well…" Carson said.

Melony nodded and stepped forward – even as several other Jaffa began to stir.

_He did it_

Indeed he did, Melony replied, smiling slightly in relief as she approached the Jaffa.

It was a good start.


	29. 29

True to their natures, the Jaffa were on their feet in less than half an hour. Beckett checked on a few of them – to make sure there were no lasting affects from the bacterium, but after the third one, he stopped. The Jaffa tolerated him, but they weren't friendly really – even under the best circumstances. At the moment they were – as a whole – chagrined and annoyed at how easily they'd fallen to the bacterium, and they weren't really the best group of people to hang out with just then. Unless of course you were their goddess.

Mitchell was in the center of the group – which now included those she'd brought with her as part of the rescue party – explaining to them what had happened and setting them up as principal sentries throughout the city – especially in the more sensitive areas. Just in case.

This augmentation to the security of the city meant that those scientists and few soldiers who had been in hiding for so many days could now find a warm place to sleep and not have to be afraid of being discovered. Which made for much better rest. Grodin and Zelenka both found spare beds and crashed, while Carson and Shea continued to work on getting the human population back on their feet as well.

Melony stood beside Ford in the infirmary, watching as Carson worked, and keeping an eye on Sheppard and Duck, who were both still out. Others were beginning to wake up, however.

_"Hey!"_

A sharp and very angry shout drew Mitchell from her conversation with Ford, and they both looked over to see Elizabeth Weir glaring at them. Neither had even noticed she'd woken – and Beckett was too busy to keep an eye on her and the others. Of course, since all of them were strapped down, they didn't really need constant surveillance. Especially now that the Jaffa were up and about.

"She's not in her right mind…" Mitchell reminded Ford as the two of them walked over to the bed, both being very careful to keep far enough away that they didn't have to worry about Weir somehow freeing a hand and grabbing their guns.

"I know."

"Where are the others?" Weir asked, pulling on her restraints.

"In bed."

"Let me up."

"Not a chance."

"_I'm_ in command of this city, Colonel. Not you." Weir's voice was harsh, her eyes flashing angrily. "You're under my orders. Now let me up!"

_Not very happy, is she?_

Just be glad it's not permanent, she replied.

"You're not yourself right now," Ford said, clearly trying to calm Weir. "Doctor Beckett is-"

"Lieutenant Ford, I don't know what Colonel Mitchell has been telling you, but she's not in command of this city, I am. She's probably been taken over by some kind of alien life form that is trying to get a foothold into the-"

"Doctor Weir," Melony interrupted. "Don't bother. Lieutenant Ford isn't yours to command, even if he wanted to be. He's under the command of Colonel Sheppard – and then me. With Sheppard out of commission right now, that means he's under my command, and he's not going to do anything you tell him."

"Let me up!"

Weir was now struggling mightily against her restraints, but even in her bacterium induced fury she wasn't a match for the sturdy leather.

"What's this?"

Rodney McKay had walked into the infirmary without Mitchell or Ford noticing. He was holding a sandwich in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, and Melony was tempted to steal his coffee. Instead, she turned again when Elizabeth noticed Rodney's arrival as well.

"I suppose _you_ helped her take over my city?" Weir asked, her glare as hard as her tone.

McKay was rocked back a little by the cold words, but recovered fairly quickly. After all, Elizabeth wasn't in her right mind just then. And he couldn't help but be a little proud – or maybe it was smug? – that he _had_, indeed, helped Mitchell take back control of the city.

"I might have had a hand in it, yes."

"You're all going to get court-martialed for this! I'll have your commissions and your asses!"

_Oh, she's not happy…_

"Come on guys," Melony said. "Let's get out of here."

All they were doing was goading Weir, and that wasn't going to help anything.

The others nodded their agreement and the three of them left Elizabeth Weir, tied to her bed, screaming at them and rousing the others who had been coming out of their own drugged sleep.

OOOOOOOOO

"You _had_ to wake her up?"

Melony shook her head, looking back at the bed Weir was in – where she was still yelling.

"I didn't wake her up, Carson. I just happened to be there when she started ranting."

He nodded, looking back down at the test results in his hand.

"She's probably got an awful headache."

"Yes, well, I'm all for not giving her anything for it," Rodney said, still stinging over the abusive treatment – even though he knew it wasn't really personal.

"I can't anyways," Beckett told him. "I'm about ready with the first batch of serum, and I don't want them to have anything else in their systems."

"How long until you'll know if it works?" Ford asked. "Will it work as quickly as the stuff you used on the Jaffa?"

Carson shrugged.

"The Jaffa weren't affected directly by the bacterium – it was the symbiotes who were. Once the symbiotes were taken care of the Jaffa simply reverted back to their original health. I don't know how long it will take for the brain chemistry to change back to what it once was."

"But it _will_, right?" Melony asked.

"Aye. As near as I can tell there hasn't been any permanent damage."

"When will you start dosing them?" McKay asked.

"As soon as I double check these results, I'll start the first round of injections."

"Injections?" Mitchell echoed.

He nodded.

"I could use help with that, if you are willing to ask the Jaffa to help hold down my patients."

He was fairly certain Weir and the others weren't going to simply let him give them a shot of anything, after all.

Melony nodded.

"I'll go get some volunteers."

"Thank you. I'm going to go run this test once more."

Mitchell went one direction, followed by Ford, and Carson went the other direction. Rodney scowled at being left behind, but shrugged.

"I'm going to finish my sandwich."

Some place quieter.


	30. 30

Despite her slight frame, it took two Jaffa to hold Weir down so that Carson Beckett could administer her first dose of the antigen. And at that she cursed them – _and_ Carson, _and_ Mitchell and everyone _else_ within screaming distance. The Jaffa ignored her; stoically holding her completely motionless until Carson was finished giving her the shot and had moved back to stand beside Melony once more. Only then did they release her, and _even_ then she couldn't do much. Not restrained as well as she was.

"Someone's not a happy camper…"

The voice was soft – barely audible over Weir's shouts – but since Melony was right beside the bed she heard it fairly well. And turned to find John Sheppard had opened his eyes and was watching with the detached expression that always comes with any quantity of pain medication.

Melony smiled, glad to see him awake.

"She thinks we're trying to kill her."

"You're _not_ are you?"

Carson shook his head, smiling as well.

"I'm tempted."

"How do you feel, Colonel?" Melony asked, changing the subject as Weir started to drift off – a side effect of the dosage – and her shouts faded to murmured grumbling.

"Like someone _shot_ me and _then_ beat me up…"

"Well, that's how you _look_, too," Carson told him, leaning over to shine his pen light in his eyes and check the reaction of his pupils.

"Any permanent damage?" Sheppard asked, trying to look over at the other beds – which made Melony wonder if he was talking about himself or the city. Not that it mattered, since the answer was the same.

"No."

"Any other injuries?"

"Sanchez is down…" Mitchell told him. "He should be okay, though."

"Rodney and the others?"

"They're okay. We've regained control of the city and Carson's taking care of Weir and the others. He's already got the Jaffa back on their feet, so security isn't an issue."

John nodded, and she could easily read the relief in his expression when he leaned back into his pillow. The city was his responsibility – as far as he was concerned – and he'd taken it almost personally that something had happened while he'd been gone.

"Rest, Colonel," Carson said, checking the monitor that was keeping track of his vitals. As far as Melony could tell everything looked okay – but then, _she_ wasn't a doctor, was she?

Obviously though, Carson agreed with her, because he looked a little relieved himself as they watched Sheppard fall asleep almost immediately.

"He'll be fine with a bit of rest," Carson told her, catching the concern in her expression. "I've got to take care of the others…"

She nodded and gestured to the Jaffa who had held Weir down – and waved over one of the others who had been watching to see if he was needed. Weir had been difficult, but she was pretty sure it was Lorne and the other military types that would give them the real struggles – which was fine, since they had plenty of Jaffa.

With such a formidable group of assistants, Carson reached for his next syringe and headed over to the next bed, confident he wasn't going to have any trouble finishing his rounds.

OOOOOOOOOO

"How long will they be out?"

Carson shrugged, his hands in his pockets of his lab coat.

"A few hours, most likely. Maybe longer."

"Will they be any better?"

She was getting a bit tired of being called bad names – and couldn't believe the patience Carson was showing as he'd given the last injection.

"Probably. But they won't regain complete normality for several days, most likely."

"Huh. Well, I guess I'd better call Jack and brief him on what's going on – and tell him to stay away for a few days, just in case."

"Do you want me to come?"

She shook her head, and put her arm around his shoulders, steering him towards the door to his quarters.

"Nope. You need some sleep."

He started to argue with her – after all, he had patients to look after – but Melony cut him off with a raised hand.

"There are plenty of people who can watch Weir and the others sleep. No one's going anywhere and if anything comes up we know exactly where to find you."

"But-"

"Get some sleep, Carson."

He grumbled, and scowled a little, but truth be told he was exhausted and really wanted nothing more than to sleep for a week. Or at least a few hours. Responsibility warred with fatigue and this time fatigue won. He allowed her to guide him into his quarters and help him into bed.

"You'll be here when I wake up?"

She smiled; uncertain what he was asking of her, but nodded anyways.

"I'll be here."

It wasn't like she'd have too much to do once she reported to the SGC, after all.

He closed his eyes and fell asleep almost immediately, and Melony leaned over and kissed him softly, careful not to wake him. He didn't even stir. She smiled again, covered him with a blanket to make sure he didn't get chilled, and left the room, closing the door behind her and leaving him to a much deserved rest.


	31. 31

"So you're _sure_ you don't need me to send you anyone?"

"Yeah. I think we have it under control. The Jaffa are recovered completely, and Carson says that the others should be up and about in a few days."

"What about your offworld teams?"

"We have two. I've already contacted them and they're both on friendly planets with plenty of supplies. We're just going to hold them where they are until Carson clears the place as clean."

"What about Sheppard and Sanchez? You want to send them on to us?"

She shook her head.

"They're going to be fine."

"And _you're_ okay?"

Mitchell rolled her eyes, but smiled in amusement at the mothering.

"I'm fine."

"And the snake?"

_I told him not to call me that_

"Talon sends his love."

Jack O'Neill's smirk clearly showed that he was well aware that Talon wasn't sending him his love, but he like the symbiote and enjoyed the way the relationship between Talon and Melony was displayed.

"Yeah, back at him. Now… is there anything you do need from me?"

"If Teal'c checks in I need you to let him know what's going on. I doubt he'll be ready to return for a while, yet, but if-"

"Colonel?"

She frowned at the interruption and turned to see one of the Marines walking over.

_Captain Rasmussen_

I know his name.

"What is it, Captain?"

"We have a problem, Colonel…"

From the serious expression, it wasn't something small, either. Mitchell turned back to the laptop.

"I need to go, Jack. Something's come up."

His expression also changed from amused to serious.

"Anything I can do?"

"Nope. Tell Daniel and the others I said hi."

"Will do. Call me back later."

"I will."

She nodded to Grodin, who allowed the Stargate to disengage, and then turned to the Marine.

"What's up?"

"It's Ronon Dex, Colonel."

"What about him?"

"He's in the cafeteria… with Doctor McKay. Holding Doctor McKay hostage."

_"What?"_

"He's got his gun out and is telling everyone he's going to kill McKay if we don't send him back to Seteda."

"You're kidding."

"No, Ma'am."

Of course he wasn't kidding.

_Apparently the humans in the city aren't the only ones who can fall prey to this bacterium_? Talon asked, unnecessarily, as Mitchell headed out of the control room at a trot, followed by the captain and several Jaffa.

OOOOOOOOOOO

There was a small crowd at the doorway of the room the Atlanteans used as a cafeteria, and all of them moved out of the way when Mitchell arrived with Jaffa in tow.

"What's going on?" she asked Shea, who had been closest to the door and looked pale and frightened.

"He just went _crazy_," she said, pointing into the room. "One minute I'm sitting there with Rodney, talking about what had happened, and the next minute, he comes running in with his weapon out, shouting and accusing us of keeping him away from his people."

"And telling us that he'll kill us if we don't send him back," Kavanagh added, holding a wad of napkins against a bleeding cut on his forehead. "He hit me."

"He called him crazy," Shea explained. "That was before he brought out his gun and pointed it at Rodney – and said he'd kill him if he didn't send him home."

As they were explaining what had happened, Melony was looking through the doorway carefully, trying to see what was going on. The room was completely deserted, except for Dex, who was sitting with his back to the far wall and his large (and very dangerous) weapon pointed directly at Rodney McKay, who was thoroughly tied and sported a nasty gash that was smearing blood on the side of his cheek.

_Shit…_

"There's no way we can take him out without him hitting McKay," Rasmussen said, softly, looking over Mitchell's shoulder. "He's too good."

Melony nodded her agreement. The weapon Ronon held was almost an extension of himself, and he trained with it constantly. Not to mention his reflexes were as good as her own – and she had Talon.

_He's not as quick as you are_

You want to risk Rodney's life on that?

_No_

Neither did she.

She sighed, and pulled her Beretta out of her holster, handing it over to one of the Jaffa.

"None of you kill him," she said – more for the benefit of the Jaffa than for the Atlanteans. The Jaffa might think they could take Dex – and some of them probably _could_ – but things could get lethal very quickly in such a small space and with so many weapons firing there was a chance for some serious casualties. Which was unacceptable – especially coming on the heels of taking the city back with so few.

"What are you going to do?" Rasmussen asked, softly.

"Go talk to him."


	32. 32

The gun in Ronon's hand went from Rodney to Mitchell the moment she walked into the cafeteria.

"That's far enough."

Rodney looked up, and gave a visible sigh of relief.

"Oh thank God…"

Melony stopped, her hands slightly to each side to show him she wasn't holding a weapon.

"What's going on, Ronon?"

"I'm going home."

"I told you, it's _destroyed_…" McKay told him. "You were there… you saw it."

"It's not. It was a trick."

Melony frowned.

"Why would we trick you about something like that?"

"To keep me here."

McKay snorted, feeling a little more secure now that Mitchell was there – even though she didn't even have a gun in her hand – and his own were still painfully tied.

"Oh yes, we definitely want to _keep_ you here. Nothing like having a little comic relief around when-"

"Rodney…"

He scowled, but stopped.

"Look, just let me _go_, okay? We're not trying to keep you here. You're just under the influence of the bacterium that got Weir and the others."

"Nice try, McKay."

"Why don't you let him go, Ronon? Then we can talk this through."

"There's nothing to talk about," Dex told her. "McKay here is going to take me home."

"How am I _supposed_ to do that?" Rodney asked, trying to move his shoulder enough to wipe his cheek.

"In one of the Puddle Jumpers."

"Ronon, he's a terrible pilot… you'll end up on the other side of the universe."

"She right, I _am_."

He shook his head, but before he could say anything else, Mitchell spoke up again.

"Why don't you let him go? _I'll_ be your hostage."

McKay looked over at her and shook his head, looking pale against the crimson smear on his cheek.

"You can't do that."

"No."

It was clear Ronon didn't think much of that plan, either.

"I'm a much better pilot."

"It's a _trick_."

She shook her head.

"You can tie me up if you want… - although it's damned difficult to fly without hands."

He stared at her, intently, obviously trying to decide where the trap was.

_This isn't really a great idea, Hot Shot…_

We have to get him out of the city. As powerful as he is, he's dangerous. Seteda is deserted, so there's no danger to the population from either the bacterium or Ronon.

"It's not a trick, Ronon. We'll go. You'll see that we're not lying to you, and-"

"And then what? You'll-?"

"Melony, you can't _do_ this," McKay hissed. "He'll _kill_ you. He's under the influence of that bacterium! You don't know what he might be capable of doing-"

"Shut up, McKay," Ronon snapped, his eyes and weapon still trained on Mitchell, since he was far too experienced to be distracted from the true threat in the room. McKay was tied, after all. Melony wasn't.

"You'll take me?"

"Yes. No tricks?"

She shook her head.

"No."

He studied her for another moment, clearly making decisions of his own, and finally he nodded.

"Fine."

McKay let out the breath he'd been holding in explosively.

"Thank God."

"_You're_ coming, too," Ronon told him, standing up.

"What? _Me_? What do you need me for?"

"To keep Mitchell from going back on her word," he said, stepping back. "If she lies to me, you die." He looked over at Melony, watching for her reaction, but she just nodded.

"That's fine."

"Take him. I'll follow. Tell the others to get back."

He waited until Melony helped Rodney get to his feet – a hard thing to do when you're woozy from a blow to the head and tied securely – and then motioned for her to lead the way.

She stepped out of the cafeteria with McKay half a pace in front of her, and motioned for the others to all move back. The Atlanteans moved immediately. The Jaffa hesitated, all of them obviously more than willing to risk their lives to help her. She made another motion with her hands, and the leading edge of the Jaffa moved back, giving Ronon all the room he could have wanted when he emerged from the cafeteria as well. He stopped long enough to make sure they were all well back, and then waved the gun towards the corridor that led to the Jumper bay.

Just as he did, Ford came around the corner at a run, obviously just arriving on the scene and anxious to find out what was going on. He startled Dex, startled Melony and ran right into McKay, who went down in a heap with the young lieutenant on top of him.

The Jaffa pounced immediately, even as Talon took over Melony and turned her, snapping her left foot out to catch Ronon in the stomach. He fired, but the motion of her kick had moved her head and torso lower than it had been and the bolt missed her – barely.

He didn't get a chance to fire again.

"Don't hurt him!" Mitchell yelled, moving in quickly to the dog pile that consisted of Ronon and five Jaffa. There was a lot of cursing and grunting, but in only a few moments, Dex found himself sprawled on the floor, bleeding from several minor cuts and tied up as securely as Rodney McKay.

He glared up at Mitchell.

"You said no tricks!"

"I didn't trick you, Ronon."

_"You bitch!"_

One of the Jaffa kicked him, and he grunted, the breath knocked out of him but his glare still pinned on Mitchell.

"Enough."

"What happened?" Ford asked, untying Rodney.

"He's under the influence of the virus. How are you feeling?"

Surprised by the sudden question, he shrugged.

"I'm okay."

"Rodney?"

"I just got _beat up_ and _tackled_. How am I _supposed_ to feel?"

She fought down her impatience.

"You're not having any odd thoughts or any kind of odd judgment calls? Not feeling _conspired_ against?"

"What? No."

"Me, either…" Ford agreed.

"We'd better check the rest of the rescue teams," Melony said, reaching down to pull Ronon to his feet. He kicked out at her hand – missed – and was immediately kicked again for his efforts. Mitchell pulled him to his feet, and this time two Jaffa took positions on either side of him in case he tried something, each holding the ropes that were binding him. "Take the Jaffa. If any of the others are even looking at you funny, take away their weapons, tie them up and get them to the infirmary."

"Is that where you're going?"

She shook her head, looking at Ronon.

"I told him I'd take him to Seteda, and I'm going to."

Right after they stopped in the infirmary and gave him the first shot of antigen – just to get things started.


	33. 33

_Author's Note: Sorry about the wait on this. Had a birthday party and then a Super Bowl party today - and then I was just too full to do anything but nap all afternoon!_

OOOOOOOOOO

Ronon Dex wasn't any more amenable about getting an injection of the antigen than Weir and the others had been. _He_, however, had even less chance to protest it. Mitchell's Jaffa pretty much carried him into the infirmary, gagged and tightly bound to keep from having to worry about him resisting or waking those who were sleeping off their first dose.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to take him anywhere?" Ford asked, worried, as he and Melony watched one of Carson's medical technicians give Dex the shot. "He's dangerous."

She nodded.

"I know. But he's also tied up."

"For now."

"I'm not going to untie him, Aiden."

"He might get loose."

"He won't."

Ford frowned, looking at her uncertainly.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay?"

Now Mitchell smiled.

"I'm not being affected by the bacterium, Ford. This is just common sense."

"How so?"

"Presumably Ronon's going to remember what happened even after they clear the bacterium from his system. If we go around treating him like a captured enemy instead of the ally he is – even though at the moment he's trying to kill us – there's always the chance he'll hold a grudge."

"And he might leave?"

She shrugged.

"Maybe. Besides, I like and respect him too much to treat him like that. This way, he remembers that we actually _tried_ to reason with him – even when he wasn't being reasonable."

"Huh. I didn't think of that."

She smiled.

"That's why _I'm_ a Colonel."

Ford's answering grin was amused, but he chose not to make a reply to that. Instead he sobered a little.

"You _are_ planning on taking a security team, right?"

"Of course."

She wasn't stupid, after all.

"Can I come?"

She shook her head.

"No."

At his crestfallen look she smiled again.

"You _could_ still conceivably be contaminated by the bacterium, Lieutenant. The last thing I'd need is for you to go crazy on me."

"I'm not."

"We don't _think_. It's always a possibility. I'm going to take a couple of Jaffa."

They already knew the Jaffa were recovered – and who better to guard her back, really?

He nodded, and moved back as the Jaffa brought Dex over, newly inoculated and obviously disgruntled. Mitchell looked at Ford.

"If Carson wakes up before I get back, tell him where I went and not to worry."

"Yes, Ma'am."

She gestured to the Jaffa and they followed her out of the infirmary, with Ronon Dex between them.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"She's out of her mind…"

Rodney McKay scowled, watching as Mitchell left the infirmary – and then winced as one of the medics pressed a cold towel against the cut on his cheek.

"Shut up, Kavanagh."

The other scientist, who was also being treated by the medic, frowned.

"He's _dangerous_."

"So is she."

Of course, Kavanagh knew that first hand, and hadn't quickly forgotten the lesson. But he couldn't help himself. It was just in his nature to be disagreeable.

"He's going to get loose."

"Not likely," the medic said, shaking her head as she started numbing McKay's cheek. "Colonel Mitchell has the Jaffa."

Kavanagh rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything, well aware that he was out numbered in this particular conversation. Besides, you never made a medic mad at you before they started stitching you up. Everyone knew that.

OOOOOOOOO

The place was exactly like she remembered it. Desolate, ruined and completely shattered. Once impressive buildings were toppled, roads were littered with debris, and even after so long, there was no sign of life anywhere around the landing site.

Mitchell powered down the Jumper's engines and looked over at the copilot chair where Ronon sat, neatly tied in place.

"Well?"

"It's a trick," he said, firmly, not looking at her. "Some kind of hologram."

"You want to go outside?"

He frowned, obviously surprised by the offer.

"You'd let me?"

"Not alone."

"Fine."

She gestured for the Jaffa who had been sitting in the jump seats behind them to untie the ropes that held him to his seat – although they didn't untie his hands or arms – and then hit the rear hatch release. The door opened with a hiss, and Mitchell gestured for Ronon to go first. It was his home, after all.

He stood up gracefully, considering how well tied he was, and headed for the exit, followed by the two Jaffa and then Melony.

_How long do we wait?_ Talon asked his host.

As long as it takes.


	34. 34

"She did _what_?"

"Relax, Doc. She's fine."

Carson Beckett was hardly in the mood to relax – despite what Aiden Ford told him. He'd woken from what was supposed to have been a short nap to find that he'd slept for several hours, and had gone to the infirmary to check on Weir and the others only to find that Kavanagh and McKay had joined the ranks of those in the infirmary. Sent there by Ronon Dex, who had apparently succumbed to the effects of the bacterium as well.

And worse, when he'd asked where Dex was, Kavanagh had been quick to tell him the bad news. Dex was gone. Taken offworld and back to Seteda by Melony, who had only taken a small contingent of Jaffa to guard her.

"Has she checked in?" he asked.

Ford shook his head.

"Not yet."

"Then you don't know she's _fine_, do you?"

"Relax Carson," Rodney said. "Ford's right. Ronon's not a match for Melony and her Jaffa."

"She-"

"_Medical team to the Jumper bay! Repeat! Medical team to the Jumper bay!"_

"Oh, crap…"

There was only one Jumper out just then, and they all knew it.

Beckett's medical teams were depleted, since more than 90 percent of his staff had been knocked down by the bacterium with the others, but still those who were left reacted like the trained professionals they were. A small group of them quickly assembled themselves and their gear, and hurried out the door – with Carson leading them and Ford and Rodney McKay following behind to stay out of the way.

They arrived in the bay just as the Jumper was settling into its berth, and the rear hatch popped open at the same time the engines powered down.

"What's happened?" Carson asked, coming around behind the Jumper, fearing the worst – as always.

Melony Mitchell was the first person down the ramp, followed by the two Jaffa who had accompanied her. Between them was an unconscious Ronon Dex, who was untied and clearly showed signs of being stunned – and a little beat up, to judge by the nasty bruise forming under his left eye.

"He gave us a little trouble," Melony told him, gesturing for the Jaffa to hand Ronon to the medical team. "So we had to put him down."

"Are you out of your mind?" Carson asked, his worry turning into anger and directed at the person he'd been most worried about. "What were you thinking, taking him offworld like that?"

Since she didn't show signs of being annoyed at the lecture, it was obvious that Mitchell understood what was behind it.

"I had to, Carson. We had everything in hand."

"He attacked you."

She shook her head.

"He didn't. He was trying to make a break for the ruins of the city. I didn't think it was safe for him to be let loose like that – and wasn't completely certain we'd be able to find him again if he managed to lose us."

"How'd he get untied?" Ford asked, watching as the medics loaded Dex carefully onto a gurney and headed for the exit.

"We took him out of the Jumper so he could see that it wasn't a trick, and he wanted to be untied."

"And you _did it_?" McKay asked, incredulous.

She nodded.

"He gave me his word he wouldn't attack us…"

"And you believed him?" Carson asked as they all headed for the exit as well, since there was very little reason to hang out in the Jumper bay.

She nodded again.

"He didn't attack us."

"He ran instead," Ford said.

"Yeah. So Bea'ro here shot him with a zat…" the Jaffa in question nodded once. "And we brought him back."

"How did he get hurt?" Carson asked, confused. A zat rarely knocked someone out for any long period of time – and never left a bruise.

"He hit a rock – or a piece of rubble or something – when he landed. Knocked him out cold. We made sure he was still alive and then brought him back."

Beckett nodded as they reached the corridor that held the infirmary.

"We'll put him to bed with the others, and put him on the same dosage schedule as Elizabeth and the others…"

"How are they doing?" Melony asked, hopefully. He'd said before that it'd be days, but any good sign would have been nice.

"They're all still unconscious."

"And Sheppard and Sanchez?"

"Sergeant Sanchez isn't completely out of the woods, yet," Carson told her. "But he's doing remarkably well considering. Colonel Sheppard looks a lot worse than he is, with all the bruising on his face, but he's doing fine."

Better than fine, really, they soon found out. When they all walked into the infirmary, John Sheppard was actually sitting up in his bed, looking around with that dazed look that people who are drunk but trying very hard to look sober tend to have.

He brightened when he saw them, and they all walked over to his bedside while Carson veered off to check on Ronon first. Sheppard he knew would be fine. Dex he wanted to make sure of.

"What'd I miss?" John asked, looking at Mitchell. "Was that Ronon they just brought in?"

Melony nodded.

"Don't worry. He's going to be fine."

"I'm not worried," Sheppard told her – which didn't fool any of them. "I was just hoping that they weren't going to make me share my bed with him."


	35. 35

"So you're _sure_ everything's under control?"

Melony nodded, smirking at the amusement in Jack O'Neill's expression.

"Yeah, Jack. We've got it this time. Carson says that if any of our other rescue team members were going to come down with symptoms of the bacterium they would have done it by now. We're looking free and clear."

"And what happens when you bring your offworld teams back?"

She shook her head.

"Nothing. We've cleared all traces of the bacterium from the city – and Carson and one of our environmentalists got together and decided there was no way the bacterium could make it to the mainland, so we won't have to worry about any kind of recurrence in the near future. We'll start bringing people back as soon as tomorrow if things go right."

"And you've blocked the original planet from the dialing computer?"

"Of course."

He nodded, looking thoughtful.

"Good. How long until Weir's back on her feet?"

Mitchell smiled.

"At least a few days."

Jack hadn't missed the smile.

"Still not very happy with you guys?"

"Not too much, no. She's better than before, though. All of them are."

"Good. And your injured?"

"Sheppard's awake and talking. As soon as it's safe, I think Carson's going to send Sanchez back to you guys."

"I thought he was doing okay?"

"He is. But he'll do better there, Carson thinks. Besides, _I_ want him over there…"

"Why?"

"Because as soon as he's fit for full duty again, I want him to go into officer's training, and I want _you_ to convince him to do it."

Jack didn't look at all surprised by the fact that Melony wanted Sanchez to become an officer – although he did frown at the last part of that.

"Why me? You and Sheppard are his commanding officers…"

"And he might think that _we're_ suggesting it because he was injured. If _you_ suggest it, however-"

"He won't think it's a sympathy ploy."

"Exactly. This guy has a lot of brains and initiative, Jack. Not to mention he's gutsy as hell. He'd make a good team leader."

O'Neill smiled, holding his hands up in surrender.

"You don't have to convince me, Melony. I've read his file. Send him over as soon as it's safe to move him, and I'll get the ball rolling on this end."

"Thanks, Jack."

"You're welcome. Anything else?"

She shook her head.

"I don't think so. How's Sam?"

His expression turned guarded and she grinned, knowing full well he knew it wasn't an idle question.

"She's fine."

_You're so mean to him…_

He teased me a lot when I was a kid, she told Talon. I'm just getting my shots in where I can.

"Tell her I said hi."

He nodded.

"I will."

The monitor went blank and the gate disengaged.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

It was much later in the same day that Carson Beckett came looking for her. She was standing on one of the observation decks looking out over the ocean that surrounded the city, just enjoying the nice weather – even though she couldn't see much of anything now that the sun had gone down – and the sound of the water below her.

_You should be sleeping_

I know. I will, soon.

She wasn't completely healed from the gunshot wound she'd taken – although it only ached, now, and probably wouldn't even do that the next day – and Talon was more than willing to nag her to take care of herself so he didn't have to do it later.

Behind her, she heard a door whoosh open, so she wasn't startled when Carson joined her at the railing a moment later, and smiled when he leaned slightly against her, glad that there wasn't anything pressing she needed to do for a change.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her, well aware that she hadn't yet had a final check of the gunshot wound – since he'd be the one that officially did it.

"I'm fine. You?"

He shrugged.

"A little tired."

"You should be in bed."

He nodded.

"I thought I'd wait for you."

She turned and he put his arms around her, holding her loosely in case she wasn't in the mood to be held, but Melony went willingly, and rested her cheek against his chest. Talon could do a lot of things, but he couldn't hold her like this, and sometimes it was what she needed most.

"Colonel Sheppard wants to see you before you go to bed…" Carson told her, almost reluctantly.

"Is he okay?"

"Aye, just restless."

She could understand that. He was taking just enough pain medication to keep the pain dulled to tolerable levels, and that gave him the feeling that he wasn't as injured as badly as he really was. Which meant he'd be wanting to get out of bed and doing something instead of playing patient to a small group of overworked medical staff.

"I'll go see him later…"

He smiled, and bent to kiss her neck, causing her to shiver lightly. Which he couldn't miss as close to her as he was. He pulled back.

"Are you cold?"

She shook her head, and stepped back into his arms.

"I'm fine."


	36. 36

"I'm _fine_."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"So let me up."

The corpsman shook his head.

"Not a chance."

Weir scowled.

"I'm fine, Lieutenant. Let me up."

"Not until Doctor Beckett tells me to, Ma'am."

The lieutenant was the soul of courtesy, but the staff in the infirmary was drastically depleted and he didn't have a lot of time to debate the issue with Weir – and every other person they had in the room. The only two people who weren't telling him they were fine were Sheppard and Sanchez.

"I'm sure he'd say it was okay, Lieutenant. _I'm fine_…"

"I'm sure he would, Ma'am. But he's not here, and I'm not letting you up."

Elizabeth Weir knew patronization when she heard it, and she wasn't amused.

"This is _ridiculous_! I have things that need to be done! Let me up, Lieutenant, and that's an _order_."

The corpsman couldn't help it. He smirked. Two full days of listening to everyone under the sun starting to get better – and promptly starting to order him around and demand to be let up – was wearing on him.

"With all due respect, Ma'am, _you're_ not my commanding officer. I don't _have_ to let you up and I won't until Doctor Beckett says I can. If you have a problem with that, feel free to bring it up with him. Until then, you will stay where you are, and I have plenty of assistants who are willing to enforce that if need be."

He glanced over at the main entrance to the infirmary where two Jaffa were standing guard, watching over the room and making sure that no one caused any trouble for the medical staff while they took care of their increasingly annoyed patients.

Weir followed his gaze and scowled again.

"I never should have let Mitchell bring the Jaffa to Atlantis…"

The medic snorted, and turned his attention to her wrists, checking for chafing from the restraints that kept her in her bed.

"I'm glad you did."

OOOOOOOOOOO

Completely unaware that she was being discussed, Melony Mitchell looked over Carson Beckett's shoulder as he studied his most recent lab results.

"So what do you think?" she asked, knowing that she'd already asked that question several times and was probably annoying him. She just couldn't help herself.

Luckily, Beckett understood completely and wasn't annoyed.

"This latest batch is promising." He gestured to the stack of papers on his right. "Doctor Weir's brain patterns and chemistry appear to be well within normal ranges, now."

McKay, who had been standing close by as well, sighed in relief.

"So we can let them up?"

"I didn't say that, Rodney."

"You said they were normal," Melony replied before McKay could. "Doesn't that mean that they're okay, now?"

Beckett shrugged.

"Probably. But I want to give it one more day – just to make sure."

McKay made an exasperated noise.

"There's such a thing as being _too_ cautious, Carson."

"No, Rodney, there isn't. Not in my line of work. With a new bacterium involved, I want to make sure that there isn't the chance of a reinfection – and with Ronon still on the treatment; I don't want any cross contamination issues. I can avoid that by keeping everyone right where they are for another day."

Melony nodded.

"Makes sense."

Of course, in _her_ line of work there was no such thing as too cautious, either, so she understood completely.

Rodney rolled his eyes, but he didn't object. Not that it would have made a difference anyways, since he had no authority in Carson's domain.

Beckett looked relieved that he wasn't going to have to argue with anyone.

"You'll keep the Jaffa in the infirmary?" he asked her.

"As long as you need them."

"So we'll let them up _tomorrow_?" McKay asked.

Carson frowned.

"What's the hurry, Rodney? Got a hot date with one of them?"

McKay flushed, suddenly uncomfortable.

"No. Of course not. I mean, not that I don't _date_… I _could_, you know. I just… well… I have something else-"

"It wouldn't have anything to do with wanting to go back and finish your visit with the Light Ones, would it?" Carson asked, enjoying the flustered stammering.

Rodney shrugged.

"It might."

While it was obvious that Beckett was assuming that McKay was eager to get back to cash in on the open nature of the Light Ones – at least, the females – Melony had a feeling it wasn't that simple. Or physical.

"You want to get back and see the _kids_, don't you?"

"What? _No_."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, _really_. I just want to get back and… let them know everything's okay here."

Carson smiled, amused to see a different side of McKay than the usual self-centered and egotistical one he usually presented – and surprised that it really did exist.

"You _do_ want to see the kids, don't you?"

"You know, I don't have to put up with this," McKay told them, annoyed. "I just thought-"

"You old softie, you…" Melony said, grinning. "Who'd have thought you had so much-"

"Shouldn't you be going to get Jinto?" he asked, interrupting.

"What?"

"You know? The boy you left on-"

"Oh, crap."

She'd forgotten all about Jinto.

McKay's expression was as smug as Melony had ever seen it.

"Guess I won't being going back alone, will I?"

Bah.


	37. 37

"I can't believe you forgot him…"

Mitchell scowled, and pointedly avoided looking over at the copilot seat.

"I got _shot_, Rodney. That kind of thing can be a distraction."

The astrophysicist snorted.

"I can't wait to tell Halling."

"It's not like I left Jinto on some volcanic planet with a group of cannibals watching him," Melony said, realizing that she was never going to hear the end of this and hoping that the boy would find it as amusing as McKay was. Or at least not hate her for it.

"Still…"

"You know, I _could_ just drop you at the Farmer's area and let you catch a ride with the Light Ones back to their colony…"

McKay frowned. He loved to visit the Light Ones, but hated flying with them in their eagle form – much preferring to have a Jumper drop him off.

"You wouldn't do that."

"I might."

Yeah, she might, at that. Mitchell wasn't a bad person and McKay liked her and respected her, but she also had an odd streak in her humor – no doubt a result of her blending with the symbiote she carried – that left her sometimes a little unpredictable. At least to him.

"Okay, I'm _sorry_."

She smiled, and finished her preflight check of the Jumper systems – which never usually took very long.

"Ready?"

"Are you sure we don't need some security with us?"

"What for?"

"You know, in case something goes wrong…"

"We're in a Jumper, Rodney. We're not going to run into any Dark Ones in the air. Besides, I want the Jaffa where they might be needed."

"Carson's letting everyone up today," he reminded her. "They're not going to be needed."

She ignored that, and powered up the Jumper. With everyone returning to their duties that morning, she wanted to make sure that anything that might go wrong was instantly quelled. The Jaffa would be able to keep people from acting out – simply by sheer intimidation factor – and would provide perfect backup to the security forces who were already there.

Besides, she definitely didn't need them to pick up one boy and drop off one genius.

_And this is a good way to avoid Doctor Weir…_ Talon pointed out.

I'm not avoiding her.

_You haven't been by to talk to her since she came around_

I've been busy.

_Not too busy to go get Jinto_

She scowled.

Shut up, Talon.

He snorted, more amused than offended, but kept his peace – although she knew he was still listening in on her thoughts. He couldn't really help that, and she knew it. It came with the package, after all.

Completely unaware of the silent conversation going on between Mitchell and her symbiote, and uncomfortable with the silence in the cabin of the Jumper, Rodney spoke up.

"So… Elizabeth was asking about you yesterday…"

Mitchell sighed, and ignored the purely mental snort of amusement from Talon.

"I'm _not_ avoiding her."

McKay shrugged, uncertain why she sounded so annoyed.

"I didn't say you were. I just-"

"Rodney, _hush_."

She flipped the com switch on the Jumper.

"Atlantis flight, this is Jumper 4, ready to depart."

It was Grodin who replied.

"Roger, Jumper 4. Have a good trip."

"Roger." She turned to McKay. "Dial it up."

OOOOOOOOOO

The Farmer's village had prospered a bit since the humans had reunited with the Light Ones, and there were signs of growth everywhere. Nothing too major, since they still had Dark Ones roaming through the forest at will, but the Light Ones helped their allies with foraging and planting and the difference was easy to see. There were a few more barns, for one, since the Farmer's could raise bigger herds, now, and larger fields to grow the grains that the Light Ones bartered for.

Mitchell was pleased by the changes, as she always was when she visited, and set the Jumper down in a spot that had been cleared for just that purpose. By the time the engines had been turned off, there were Light Ones, Farmers and one very excited Athosian boy all gathering around.

"_Colonel Mitchell!"_

It was Jinto who ran up to them first, although several of the Farmer children ran up, too. They liked Mitchell.

Melony caught the boy in a rough hug, smiling.

"Hey, buddy. How are you doing?"

She let him go and greeted the other children as well, but made certain to hear Jinto's answer.

"I was beginning to think you'd forgotten me," he told her, grinning.

She returned the smile with a sheepish one of her own – and a pointed look at McKay, who had already started to open his big mouth.

"Like I'd _forget_ you. Things just got a little crazy back home, that's all."

"She got _shot_," McKay said.

Now Jinto wasn't the only one who was looking at her – although the gazes of the Light Ones and the Farmer's were far more serious. Kale stepped up, closer, dressed luckily, but concerned.

"You were injured?"

"Not seriously," she said quickly – adding another smile for good measure. "Things just got a bit out of hand."

""There were invaders?" The Light One asked. Clearly he'd been hanging out with the Farmer's for the past few days, waiting on word from the Atlanteans. And probably especially from Elizabeth.

She shook her not.

"Not exactly. More of a sickness, really…"

"It made almost everyone go crazy," Rodney added. "Elizabeth shot _Colonel Mitchell_… Major Lorne shot _Colonel Sheppard_, Ronon hit-"

"Is Elizabeth all right?" Kale asked, interrupting. No big surprise there, really, since everyone knew how he felt about Weir.

Melony scowled at Rodney, who seemed to just delight in delivering bad news, and nodded.

"She's _fine_. And so are the others."

"Colonel Sheppard?" Jinto asked, looking scared.

"He's okay, too."

More or less.

"Well, not-"

"Shut up, Rodney." She turned to the others. "Everyone's going to be fine. Which is why we stopped by; to let you know. And to pick up Jinto, of course."

The boy beamed.

"May I return with you?" Kale asked.

Melony wasn't surprised by the question – and had even asked Carson in case it came up. He'd told her that everything looked okay, now. Otherwise he'd never have allowed her to go get Jinto – and they wouldn't have brought in their offworld teams earlier that morning.

"Yeah. If you want to, Doctor Beckett says it's safe, now. But we'll limit the visitors, just now," she added, knowing that Char and the others would want to join them if they could, and knowing that Carson would prefer that they didn't risk too many Light Ones just then. Just in case.

Kale nodded, looking pleased, and turned to his people.

"You will return and let the others know that the Atlanteans are safe."

Char nodded.

"Actually," Rodney said, quickly. "We can give you a ride if you want. I was hoping to finish my visit…"

And hoping that Mitchell wasn't so annoyed with him that she wouldn't drop him off where he was and make him fly in with the Light Ones.

The Light Ones all nodded. They didn't mind flying, of course, but if the invitation was extended, it was only polite to accept it.

"Thank you," Char said for all of them.

Melony just smiled, and pushed Jinto gently toward the Jumper.

"Let's get going."


	38. 38

Elizabeth Weir was in the Jumper bay when Jumper 4 landed in its berth. She'd been trying to catch Colonel Mitchell since Carson Beckett had excused her from the infirmary, but it was becoming more and more apparent that the other woman was avoiding her. No one could be that conveniently absent every time Weir was in a certain location, after all.

Of course, Elizabeth thought, there was every reason for Mitchell to avoid her. She'd been shot, after all. Not only by Elizabeth herself, but also by the very fact that it was Elizabeth who had allowed the foothold situation in the first place. Beckett was the medical officer in charge, but it was Elizabeth who was responsible for who came and left through the gate – and she hadn't done a good enough job checking the welfare of her people when they entered. The men who had brought the infection had been sick when they'd arrived – having come from a two-day patrol – and she should have realized that when they'd returned. Instead she'd simply sent them on to the infirmary to get a physical before debriefing.

Which was what she normally would have done. What she always did. Only this time, it was with almost disastrous results. She should have spoken with the men longer. She was certain the more she thought about it – and she'd had a couple of days stuck in the infirmary to think about it – the more she was certain that she would have been able to notice the change in their mannerisms and actions. Beckett wouldn't have. He didn't have much to do with the military personnel – aside from Mitchell, of course. He wouldn't have been able to tell that they were acting odd.

So she'd screwed up big time, and Mitchell, Sheppard, Sanchez and several others had been injured because of it. Small wonder Mitchell didn't want to talk to her, Weir thought. But there were things that needed to be said, and to that end, she had decided that the best place to catch Mitchell was in the Jumper bay, before she had a chance to get lost in the city once more.

She hadn't expected Kale to be the first to exit the Jumper, though. The sight of him surprised her, and the smile he gave her when he saw her standing there pretty much threw all thoughts of conversation with Melony Mitchell out of her mind.

"Elizabeth," Kale said, walking over to her as Mitchell and Jinto also exited the rear of the Jumper. "It is good to see you again. Colonel Mitchell said you have been ill."

Weir flushed, both because of the reminder of what she saw as her own personal failure, and because of the sudden magnetism she felt towards him – as she always did when he turned that smile on her. Pheromones, Beckett said, and Weir knew that was true, but there was also a very real attraction to him. And it was amplified by the fact that she was well aware that he was just as attracted to her.

"I… I _was_, Kale," she stammered, feeling gawky and ungainly. He just had that affect on her sometimes. "I'm better, now, though."

The Light One smiled broadly.

"That's good to hear. I was concerned."

Her blushes weren't cooling, and Mitchell cleared her throat.

"I'm going to go find Halling…" she said, putting a hand on Jinto's shoulder and doing an admirable job of hiding her amusement – made even tougher by the fact that Talon was just as amused.

That, of course, brought Weir out of her daze. Startled, she turned her attention to Melony.

"I was hoping for a chance to talk to you, Colonel…"

Melony nodded.

"That's fine, Doctor Weir, but I need to return what I've borrowed…" the look she gave Jinto was amused, and he echoed her smile.

Mitchell was his second favorite person from Earth, after all – right behind Sheppard – and he was proud to have been 'borrowed' for the trip to see the Mok. Even if it hadn't ended the way he'd planned.

"But-"

"Any idea where he is?" Melony interrupted.

"He's up in the control room. Waiting for you."

"Good enough. Let's go, Jinto."

"But, Colonel, I wanted a chance to talk to you…"

She shrugged.

"Time enough for that later, Doctor Weir. I'm sure Halling's worried about Jinto and wants to see him. You catch up with Kale, and come find me later."

She turned and headed out of the Jumper bay with Jinto, leaving Weir standing there. Kale smiled, though, pleased that Colonel Mitchell had given him the opportunity to spend some time with Elizabeth. Which had been the whole point of coming, after all.

OOOOOOOOOO

_You're soooooo avoiding her!_

No, I'm not.

_You are!_

No, I'm-

_Yes, you are! You're such a chicken, I swear. Bwauck bwauck bwuack-_

Stop.

Having someone in your head making chicken noises at you was about as annoying a thing as there ever was invented, Mitchell decided, even more annoyed when Talon switched over to meowing at her – which he actually had to explain was his imitation of a 'fraidy cat.

I swear, if you don't stop, I'm going to put the business end of a Hoover against my ear and suck you out…

The symbiote laughed outright, which was a little better than having him teasing her, and Melony was able to finish the walk to the control center in peace and quiet – although she did have to deal with Talon's occasional snicker as he kept bringing up images in her mind of her with a vacuum cleaner stuck in her ear.

Luckily, they were both distracted when they entered the control room and Jinto saw his father.

"Father!"

He ran over to Halling, who smiled with relief and took him in his arms. Yes, the people in the control room had assured him Jinto was in good hands, but it was still unnerving to have his son somewhere else with such tumultuous events going on in the city. He gave Mitchell a silent thank you as he assured himself his boy was okay, and Melony grinned.

"He's probably in need of a bath, but otherwise he's fine."

Peter Grodin walked up from where he'd been standing near the communications area.

"Colonel? Colonel Sheppard wants to see you, when you get the chance."

"Is he okay?"

_If he weren't, then it'd be Beckett he wanted to see, Hot Shot,_ Talon pointed out.

Good point.

Grodin nodded.

"As far as I know, his condition hasn't changed."

"Thanks, Peter. I'll head over there now."

_Because Weir isn't there?_

Shut up, Talon.


	39. 39

Ronon Dex was lounged next to John Sheppard's bed when Mitchell arrived. The big warrior looked fully recovered from his own dose of the bacterium, which was confirmed by the slight smile he gave her in welcome when he saw her approach.

"I owe you an apology."

She smiled.

"Nah, not really."

"I called you some fairly descriptive names."

"You weren't yourself."

Besides, she'd been called a lot worse in her life.

_And it's not like he _shot_ you, after all_

She gave Talon a mental poke, and ignored his amused response to it.

"Well, necessary or not, I _do_ apologize."

Mitchell shrugged and sat down on the edge of Sheppard's bed since Ronon had the only chair available and the next bed over was too far away for comfortable conversation.

"Apology accepted." She gave them both a wry look. "I didn't even think about our groups getting infected," she admitted.

Sheppard's look was just as chagrined.

"Me, either."

"Although we did okay," Melony said. "One out of the entire group – when over _ninety_ percent of the Atlantean contingent caught it? That's not bad."

"Beckett said it's probably because the bacterium was weaker by the time we got here," Ronon told her. Obviously they'd been discussing it while she was away getting Jinto. "We were exposed to a smaller concentrate."

He sounded a little miffed that he was the one who'd become ill, but Mitchell was just glad they hadn't lost more people to it – and that Ronon hadn't succumbed to the illness until after the city had been retaken.

"Which is also why it didn't have more of an affect on Talon," she said, realizing that was probably the case. If it had been at full strength, she might have been taken out as easily as the Jaffa had been.

_We'll have to make sure to mention that_, Talon told her. _They're not really happy with themselves for getting sick_

Like they had any choice.

Which of course didn't matter when it came to Jaffa pride.

Sheppard nodded.

"Probably."

"It could have been a lot worse," Ronon said, and Melony nodded her agreement.

"It was bad enough," Sheppard told them.

Of course, since he was the one stretched out in the infirmary nursing a nasty beating and a couple of bullet wounds, neither of them could disagree with him.

Melony turned toward the bed that held Duck – who was in a drug induced coma that Carson planned on keeping him in until they sent him home.

"How's Sanchez?"

"Beckett says he's probably going to be okay."

There had been a chance – a slight one, anyways – that Carson might have been more optimistic when discussing Duck with Melony than he might have been with Sheppard or one of the others, so she figured she should ask. It was a relief to hear the same prognosis from the others.

"They're sending him through the gate tomorrow."

"Good."

Ronon looked at her.

"How are _you_ feeling?"

She knew he was referring to the gunshot wound, and couldn't help the way her face tightened. Talon gave a mental chuckle that she ignored.

"I'm fine. Talon's taking care of it."

It didn't bother her much at all, really – even though her symbiote wasn't working over time to heal it.

_It's not that serious_

I know.

John gave her a look she couldn't interpret.

"Elizabeth came by a little while ago."

Bah.

Melony kept her face as expressionless as she could – and knew that even that had given her away.

"She seems to think you're _mad_ at her…" Sheppard added.

"I'm not."

"It wasn't intentional, you know…"

"I know."

Which didn't make it less uncomfortable.

"Then-"

"Have _you_ talked to Major Lorne?" Melony asked, interrupting.

Sheppard scowled, but refused to allow the tables to be turned on him just then – even though she was absolutely correct in guessing that he hadn't.

"She told me this whole thing was her fault," he said, looking between Mitchell and Ronon.

"It's not."

Ronon and Melony said this at the same time.

John smiled.

"I know. Someone should talk to her… you know, to convince her of that."

His look now was pointedly at Mitchell – who scowled.

"Why don't _you_ do it? You're senior military officer."

"Only because _you're_ not in the line of command," Sheppard told her. "You're my superior officer."

"Then I'll order you to do it."

He suddenly drooped in his bed, his head falling backwards against the pillow and his eyes closing halfway. A look of intense pain crossed his features and Melony scowled, well aware of what he was going to say next.

"I would… but I'm injured. You'll have to go in my place."

_Rank hath its privilege, Hot Shot_, Talon told her smugly.

Shut up.

She was well and truly caught, though.

"Fine. I'll talk to her."

After she had a cup of coffee – and maybe lunch.


	40. 40

As it turned out it was a bit longer than that.

Mitchell was the ranking military officer on Atlantis – whether she liked it or not – and with Sheppard out of action the responsibility for the safety of the city fell directly to her. Something that she was well aware of, of course. That meant making sure that there was always at least one security team – fully armed and armored, of course – ready in the gate room in case someone or something tried to make an entrance to the city. There were also several spotters set out in various locations around the city to watch the skies for any unwelcome visitors. Yes there were sensors watching the skies, but Weir, Mitchell and Sheppard had all agreed that it was a good idea to have real people watching, too. It hadn't been feasible before Mitchell arrived because they hadn't had the manpower to cover such shifts, but with the addition of Mitchell and her Jaffa, manpower became less of a problem and the city watcher shifts were put into play.

She made certain that all the shifts were covered for the next twenty-four hours, then went and had lunch. The commissary was empty – save for a few scientists seated around one of the tables who greeted her respectfully but then returned immediately to their interrupted conversation. A conversation about a video game they'd been playing – and one that Melony wasn't interested in. She grabbed a couple of sandwiches, a thermos of coffee and a handful of cookies and went back to her quarters long enough to get her laptop.

It was a fact in any type of military and civilian operation that they floated on a river of paperwork. A joint mission costing billions of dollars was certainly no exception. If anything, there was even more. Moreover, when something happened like the events of the past week or so, it was going to increase that amount of paperwork exponentially. And Sheppard wasn't in any condition to really do all that much given the amount of medication Carson was giving him to deal with the pain of his wounds.

Melony didn't really mind, though. Unlike certain Generals, she didn't have a problem doing paperwork. It was a good way to go over in her mind – and write down – what had happened, and what might have been done differently.

She took her meal and laptop to the little closet that she called her office, well aware that no one would be able to distract her simply by walking by – and unless it was an emergency they probably wouldn't come looking for her – and sat down at her simple desk, pulled out the laptop and got to work. She didn't plan on doing all of the paperwork, of course. There was a lot of it, and as far as she was concerned a lot of it was simply scut labor – which she's assign to Major Lorne later on. After all, it was only fair, since he'd been the one to injure Sheppard.

_He didn't mean to_

I know.

She ignored that, though, and poured herself a cup of coffee and got to work.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

She ended up doing a lot more than she'd intended to. The city must have been fairly peaceful, because no one called for her and no one came looking for her. Only the fact that she ran out of coffee caused her to take a break – and that was after several hours of steady working. She finally stretched and stood up, realizing that the sandwiches she'd eaten earlier had worn off and she was ready for something more substantial.

Gathering up her laptop, she looked at her watch, surprised that she'd been working more than five hours.

_It relaxed you_, Talon told her. _So I kept you comfortable_

Meaning he'd kept her fingers from cramping, and her butt from aching.

"Thanks."

Since he was inside her head all the time, he knew it wasn't sarcastic, and he sent her a rush of affection, reminding both of them that no matter how much teasing and annoyance passed between them, they were very fond of each other.

_You're welcomed_

Which didn't mean she wasn't hungry, however. Stomach rumbling, she headed down the corridor, already anticipating whatever was on the menu.

She didn't make it that far, however. On the way to the commissary, she passed one of the viewpoint balconies, and had a glimpse of a solitary figure standing at one of the rails looking out over the darkened ocean. Elizabeth Weir hadn't seen her, and didn't seem to be paying attention to anything that was going on around her, so Melony could have continued walking without bothering her, but she hesitated.

_Time for a talk, hmmm?_

Yeah.

She walked through the opening in the corridor that led out onto the balcony, and quietly came over and stood beside Weir.

"Where's Kale?"

Elizabeth jumped, startled by the sudden presence of Colonel Mitchell next to her. She recovered fairly quickly, however, and gave her a slightly chagrined smile.

"He's off looking for you, I think."

"Any particular reason why?"

She shook her head.

"He didn't say. Probably just to socialize." She sighed, and turned back towards the ocean. "I'm afraid I haven't been very good company for him…"

Melony leaned against the railing, listening to the sound of the ocean far below them. Not that their love life was any of her business, but she couldn't help the question. It just popped out on its own.

"Any particular reason…?"

She shrugged, not turning back towards the conversation, even as she answered.

"Are you kidding? I just about lost the city. If not for you and John Sheppard, I-"

"You didn't lose the city."

"I almost did."

"It wasn't your fault."

"I ordered Major Lorne to torture John… I _shot_ you. I-"

"You weren't in control of what you were doing, Elizabeth," Melony interrupted, realizing even as she said it that it was the truth and that there was absolutely no room for her to hold any kind of grudge against Weir for what had happened. It could have just as easily happened to her or one of the others. Look how many it _had_ happened to.

"I should have been."

Mitchell snorted.

"Nah. We got a lesson in just how careful we should be – and it was almost a _very_ costly one – but you didn't have any more control over what was going on than the Jumper I was flying in. Next time we'll do better, that's all."

Weir frowned.

"It's not that simple, Colonel Mitchell."

"Yes, it is."

"I shot you."

"And I lived," Melony told her simply. "And so will John Sheppard, and the others. No harm done – and it definitely wasn't your fault."

"But-"

"Besides," Mitchell said, interrupting. "You're a terrible shot."


	41. 41

The comment made Weir smile, but only for a moment.

"I made a lot of mistakes."

Melony shrugged.

"No more than I did."

Elizabeth seemed surprised by the comment – at least her expression showed surprise.

"You?"

"Yeah." Mitchell flashed a wry grin. "We came in with guns drawn and egos way overinflated, certain that we could fix everything with a single gunfight – or something equally easy."

"And you did."

"Not so," Melony disagreed. "We lost the Jaffa immediately, only luck kept _me_ from joining them, we didn't count on as much resistance as we got from you guys – and only because we were too cocky to think we wouldn't be able to handle it – and I didn't take any kind of precaution when it came to avoiding our own people getting contaminated."

"You couldn't have known…" Elizabeth said.

"But I _should_ have," Melony told her. "It could have been a whole lot worse than it was – and it would have been my own fault."

Which was, of course, true. As Mitchell had been writing out the paperwork that afternoon, she'd realized that that certainly had been the case. They'd gotten very lucky.

"You know…" she continued, well aware that Weir didn't know how to reply to her self criticism. "Carson, Zelenka and the others are the real reason the city didn't fall."

Elizabeth nodded.

"I know."

"We'll just have to do better next time," Melony said, shrugging. "Take what went right and learn from what didn't."

Elizabeth gave her a searching look.

"That sounds like the voice of experience talking…"

Mitchell shrugged.

"I've made a few mistakes. Never the same one twice, though."

"Which is something."

"Yeah."

But it wasn't something she really wanted to talk about. Not to Weir, or anyone else. Turning back to the water she leaned against the railing, enjoying the slight breeze that had suddenly sprung up.

Elizabeth, too, seemed ready to allow the conversation to drop, but the silence between them wasn't anywhere near as uncomfortable as it had been before.

_You should go find your doctor and see what he's doing…_

Melony rolled her eyes, but eventually decided that that wasn't such a bad idea.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

"Is anyone sitting here?"

Carson Beckett looked up, already smiling because he recognized her voice.

"I was saving it for you."

She echoed his smile and sat down in the space beside him, dinner on the tray she sat down on the table. Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy and corn on the cob looked and smelled delicious compared with the scanty lunch she'd had.

Carson watched her as she sat, automatically checking for signs of discomfort that would tell him she wasn't healing as well as she should be. He couldn't help himself; it was just something he did. And he did it with everyone, not just Colonel Mitchell.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her, not seeing any sign that anything was wrong.

She scowled.

"Some day you're going to find a better way to start a conversation."

He blushed, but knew her well enough to know that she wasn't really annoyed.

"Some day you're going to stop throwing yourself into harm's way so I don't have to keep asking."

_Touché_

The scowl faded, replaced by a cheerful smile.

"Where's the fun in that?"

Carson snorted, amused as well and glad for a chance at some levity after the events of the past week.

"Elizabeth was looking for you earlier," he told her, hoping her good mood would last. To his surprise, she nodded, and didn't lose her cheerful demeanor.

"She found me. Actually, I found her."

"And you had a talk?"

"Yeah."

Since he was looking directly at her, he knew she probably wouldn't be able to hide any sign of annoyance the question brought up, but her expression didn't change at all, and Carson was relieved that they'd apparently talked things through. Atlantis was a fairly close-knit group of people and problems between people – especially those in charge – left to simmer until they boiled over was definitely something to be avoided.

"Oh."

_You think he's wondering if you pitched her off a balcony?_ Talon asked, amused at Beckett's expression.

Melony didn't respond, although her amusement was all the answer he needed. Instead, she took a moment to watch Carson as he started back in on the meal her arrival had interrupted.

"Are _you_ all right?" she asked, frowning. He looked a little pale now that his blushes had faded, and she noticed that he seemed to be pushing his food around the plate rather than actually eating it.

He nodded, quickly.

"Oh, aye. I'm fine." He saw that she didn't look convinced. "Just a little tired, maybe…"

Which made sense, of course. They'd been asking a lot of him, especially since he'd been the only actual medical doctor to have avoided the bacterium infection. The others had helped where they could, but it was Carson who had taken the brunt of the work. Not to mention he was friends with John Sheppard and had taken to constantly checking on him until he was absolutely certain he was out of any danger of infection from his injuries.

Her frown deepened, and Carson made an impatient noise. _He_ was the doctor, after all. He'd know.

"I'm fine, Melony. Really."

She didn't look convinced. Instead, she reached out and rested her hand lightly against his forehead.

"Hey, now," an amused voice said, coming up from behind them. "Some of us are going to be _eating_ here…"

Ronon Dex was far from a prude, but he had noticed that several of the Atlanteans _were_ – and it always amused him to see them blush at some comment he made. This had been a perfect opportunity, really, to have even more fun. And maybe a little revenge on Beckett for keeping him the extra day in the infirmary.

Mitchell didn't blush, although she did smile at the attempt. And she didn't move her hand – although Beckett turned a brilliant scarlet.

"He's coming down with something," she said as Ronon sat down across from them and set his tray on the table. It was loaded with at least twice as much food as Mitchell had, but it didn't really matter. They were in constant contact with Earth, now, so they didn't need to ration.

Dex frowned. Now that she mentioned it, he did look punier than usual. And pale.

"That bacterium?" he asked.

Beckett pulled his head back, out of Melony's reach.

"I'm _fine_."

She didn't look convinced.

"Maybe you should put him to bed…" Dex suggested, starting in on his dinner. "Just to make sure."

"I'm _not_ getting sick," Carson snapped, annoyed. "Really."

"Then you won't mind having one of the other doctors give you a quick check up, will you?" Melony asked, putting him in a corner almost immediately.

He glowered at both of them, not at all amused at being ganged up on when he'd been minding his own business only a short time before. Melony's pale gaze was relentless, however, and Dex's was amused. Neither cared how indignant he was getting.

"Fine. I'll go get checked. But I'm _fine_."

What did _they_ know? They weren't doctors.


	42. Epilogue

_**Epilogue**_

"Fraiser says Sanchez looks pretty good. He should be up and around in a couple of months – just in time to catch the next officer's training class."

"Good."

"How's Sheppard?"

"He's bitching and moaning about being stuck in bed."

Jack O'Neill smiled.

"Is he well enough to get up yet?"

Mitchell shook her head.

"Probably not. Maybe by the end of the week."

"And _Beckett_?"

She smirked.

"He's going to be in bed for a while longer."

Jack grinned.

"I'll bet he loves that."

Melony nodded, knowing that the uplink through the Stargate wasn't enough to truly convey her amusement at Carson's exasperation at having caught a cold.

"He's not a happy camper right now, no."

"And they're sure it's just a _cold_? Not that bacterium?"

Melony nodded.

"They ran the tests several times – just to make sure. He just didn't take care of himself, and now he's paying the price."

O'Neill's grin faded, and he turned serious.

"He did really well, though, didn't he?"

She smiled.

"Yeah. They all did. It _could_ have been very bad…"

Jack knew. He'd read all her reports, after all.

"Yeah, well… maybe he's not the weenie I thought he was…"

Melony's smile broadened.

"Think so?"

"I didn't say he was Arnold Schwarzenegger," O'Neill said, holding up a hand.

"But he _did_ do good, didn't he?" Mitchell persisted, amused.

"Yeah."

"And you'll tell him that?"

Peter Grodin, who had been listening in on the conversation couldn't help but grin, too. _And_ feel a surge of pride, since he knew that Mitchell was also talking about him and his role in things. As scared as he'd been, it felt good to know that he'd managed to pull it together enough to still manage to function – and do it well enough that he'd been part of the team that had helped save the city. It wasn't a position he found himself in often. That was the kind of things heroes did, not ordinary guys like him.

O'Neill hesitated, knowing that if he said yes she'd probably hold him to it, but then shrugged and nodded.

"Yup."

It was the truth.

She smiled.

"I'll hold you to that."

Jack rolled his eyes.

"Is _Weir_ there?"

Mitchell chuckled, well aware that he was changing the subject but more than willing to allow it since she'd already gotten the promise from him.

"She's not on duty right now, Jack. But I'll tell her to give you a call."

O'Neill nodded.

"Teal'c arrived here this morning. He and Teyla will be back there tomorrow."

"Good. You told them everything?"

"Yeah. I let them read the reports." He looked at his watch. "You're sure _you're_ okay?"

"Yup."

"Then I'll talk to you later – and Weir, too."

"Got a hot date?"

Jack scowled, but Melony wasn't even fazed. In fact, if anything, her smile grew.

_Think he really_ does _have a date_? Talon asked, catching the thought.

Who knows?

She wasn't on Earth very much these days, so she didn't know. But it almost _seemed_ that way, didn't it?

Hmmm…

"I've got a _meeting_," Jack told her.

Mitchell smirked, but left it at that.

"Tell Sam hi for me."

"I will when I see her."

_Ha!_

The Stargate disengaged and Grodin looked over at her to see if there was anyone else she wanted him to dial. Of course, all their people were back in the city – aside from Teal'c and Teyla – and only Kale was here from any other world.

Melony was still amused, and her smile showed it clearly.

"I'll be checking on Doctor Beckett if anyone's looking for me."

Grodin nodded.

"I'll let them know."

As she walked out, though, he couldn't help but grin himself. Apparently _O'Neill_ wasn't the only one with a hot date.

OOOOOOOOO

Like she'd told Jack O'Neill, Carson Beckett was not a happy camper. In fact, he looked downright miserable and trying very hard to hide it. Bundled up in comforters and quilts, he was in his bed with only his head sticking out of the blankets and pillows propping him up so he wasn't stuck staring at the ceiling all day. On the bed beside him were several empty boxes of Kleenex and a half-full bottle of water. The lighting in the room was turned way down in deference to his headache, and he still winced when the door opened and Melony came in.

She smiled, and set the tray she was carrying down on the table next to his bed.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine."

Since he sneezed almost immediately after that statement, she shook her head.

"You don't look fine."

"I am. I _never_ get sick."

"I know."

He'd only told her that a hundred times already.

He scowled.

"Don't patronize me."

Another huge sneeze.

She ignored his irritation.

"Anything I can bring you?"

He looked at the tray.

"What's that?"

"Chicken soup, and a sandwich."

"I don't want it."

"I brought it for _me_."

He looked at her, surprised, and she smiled.

"I might share it with you, though."

Annoyed again, he huffed and buried himself a little deeper in his heap of blankets.

"I'm not hungry."

"Thirsty?"

"No."

_What a baby_

She kept that particular comment to herself, but gave Talon a purely mental poke.

He's used to being the _doctor_, not the patient.

Talon gave a mental huff that was almost identical to Carson's vocal one, but he didn't say anything else.

Melony sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Lonely?"

He poked his nose out of the blankets and looked at her, hopefully.

"You're staying?"

Everyone else was leaving him to stew in his misery – because none of _them_ wanted what he had.

She shrugged.

"You can't get _me_ sick."

He brightened. A _little_.

Talon huffed again, but Melony ignored him as she stretched out beside Carson – although she didn't steal any of his blankets. There was a faintly audible sigh from the mountain of blankets, and she smiled as he reached for the soup.

"Are there any crackers?"

THE END

_So! Another story down. Hope you guys liked it, and I hope you don't think the ending too abrupt. Let me know! (and let me know if you want another one, eventually)_

Melony


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